The Selaesori Qhoran is a trading cog, traveling a route from Volantis to Qarth.[1] Her name roughly translate to Fragrant Steward.[2]
Layout
The Selaesori Qhoran is a wallowing ship of five hundred tons. She has a deep hold, high castles fore and aft, a single mast between, and a big striped sail. The worn, half-rotted figurehead at the forecastle depicts an advisor with a contemplative look holding a scroll.[2]
The ship's galley contains three books, which include a collection of nautical poetry, a erotic tome about a slave girl in a pillow house of Lys, and the fourth and final volume of The Life of the Triarch Belicho.[2]
Crew
The captain of the Selaesori Qhoran is a mean-mouthed, flinty, kettle-bellied man with close-set, greedy eyes, who is a bad cyvasse player and a worse loser.[2] Four mates, free men sponsored by the widow of the waterfront,[3] serve under him. Further, fifty slaves serve on the ship, all tattooed after the fashion of Volantis, with the ship's figurehead on their cheek. The ship's cook is a greasy Volantene skilled at cyvasse. Three mates and three-quarters of the ship's crew worship R'hllor, but it is uncertain whether the captain worships the Lord of Light as well.[2]
Recent Events
A Dance with Dragons
The Selaesori Qhoran is set to sail from Volantis to Qarth. However, the high priest of R'hllor in Volantis, Benerro, sees in his fires that the ship will not reach her destination.[1] This information reaches the widow of the waterfront, who instructs Jorah Mormont and Tyrion Lannister, who are trying to find a passage to Meereen, to board the Selaesori Qhoran.[1]
Jorah and Tyrion are accompanied by the dwarf Penny and her pets, Pretty Pig and Crunch, The red priest Moqorro travels on the ship as well, and also five warriors of the Fiery Hand.[2] The Selaesori Qhoran carries tin and iron, bales of wool and lace, fifty Myrish carpets, a corpse pickled in brine, and twenty jars of dragon peppers.[1] Moqorro explains that the ship's name means Fragrant Steward, but Tyrion prefers it as Stinky Steward.[2] The crew refer to Tyrion as No-Nose and rub his head for good luck, but they are wary of Penny.[2]
As predicted by Benerro, the Selaesori Qhoran does not reach its destination. After being becalmed in the Gulf of Grief for twelve days, it is first damaged in a violent storm, which causes the ship to end up floating low in the water, listing ten degrees to port, with her hull sprung in half a hundred places and her hold awash with seawater. The scroll-carrying arm of the figurehead breaks off also.[4] Several people are lost at sea during the storm, including the priest Moqorro. A few people die during the following days, including the ship's captain, and several of the slaves escape in one of the smaller boats.[4]
The damaged and helpless Selaesori Qhoran drifts around for nineteen days, until it is boarded by slavers, who take the survivors captive.[4]
Quotes
The Selaesori Qhoran was a wallowing tub of five hundred tons, with a deep hold, high castles fore and aft, and a single mast between. At her forecastle stood a grotesque figurehead, some worm-eaten wooden eminence with a constipated look and a scroll tucked up under one arm. Tyrion had never seen an uglier ship.[2]
—thoughts of Tyrion Lannister
Tyrion: Tell me, was Selaesori Qhoran a triarch or a turtle?
Moqorro: Neither. Qhoran is ... not a ruler, but one who serves and counsels such, and helps conduct his business. You of Westeros might say steward or magister.
Tyrion: And selaesori?
Moqorro: Imbued with a pleasant aroma. Fragrant, would you say? Flowery?
Tyrion: So Selaesori Qhoran means Stinky Steward, more or less?
Moqorro: Fragrant Steward, rather.
Tyrion: I believe I will stay with Stinky.[2]—Tyrion Lannister and Moqorro
Prophecy is like a half-trained mule. It looks as though it might be useful, but the moment you trust in it, it kicks you in the head. That bloody widow knew the ship would never reach her destination, she warned us of that, said Benerro saw it in his fires, only I took that to mean ... well, what does it matter? What it really meant was that some bloody big storm would turn our mast to kindling so we could drift aimlessly across the Gulf of Grief until our food ran out and we started eating one another.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 27, Tyrion VII.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 33, Tyrion VIII.
- ↑ A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 47, Tyrion X.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 A Dance with Dragons, Chapter 40, Tyrion IX.