The Driftmark Gullet is the stretch of water beside Driftmark that placed House Velaryon on a busy maritime route and helped turn the island into a center of trade. Its importance lay not only in its geography, but in the ports and shipping network that grew around it.

Setting and Position

The Velaryons settled on Driftmark, a low-lying, fertile island in the Gullet, rather than on neighboring Dragonstone. Driftmark lay closer to the Narrow Sea than either Duskendale or King's Landing, giving ships arriving from the Free Cities and beyond a convenient approach to its shores.

Ports and Shipping

Lord Corlys Velaryon’s maritime expansion reshaped the island’s coast. Beneath Castle Driftmark, three fishing villages grew together into Hull, named for the rows of ship hulls visible below the castle. Near High Tide, another village developed into Spicetown, whose wharves and piers drew vessels from the Free Cities and farther abroad. Corlys also continued to build ships after leaving his post as master of ships, turning from warships to merchantmen and trading galleys.

Trade and Power

Because Driftmark sat athwart the Gullet and closer to the Narrow Sea than the mainland ports, Spicetown began to take shipping that might otherwise have gone to Duskendale or King's Landing. The resulting traffic strengthened House Velaryon’s wealth and influence. During Corlys’s tenure as master of ships, the royal fleet tripled in size; the Gullet’s commercial position and the Velaryons’ shipbuilding thus reinforced one another, making the passage central to the house’s maritime power.