Lady Meredith

Lady Meredith was one of the three ships that sailed from Oldtown with Elissa Farman on her attempt to cross the Sunset Sea. Under Ser Eustace Hightower’s command, it endured the loss of its companion Autumn Moon, a devastating storm, and further damage on the voyage home. Its battered return brought news of a perilous western expedition—but no crossing to the far side of the Sunset Sea.

The expedition from Oldtown

On the twenty-third day of the third moon of 56 AC, Lady Meredith left Oldtown in company with Elissa Farman’s Sun Chaser and Ser Norman Hightower’s Autumn Moon. Ser Eustace, a grandson of Lord Donnel and a mariner in his own right, commanded the ship and pledged it and its crew to Elissa’s mission. Their departure came just before King Jaehaerys’s order to detain Elissa Farman could reach Oldtown; Lord Donnel sent ships after the expedition, but none could catch Sun Chaser.

The ships sailed west in search of lands beyond the Sunset Sea. After storms separated Lady Meredith from Sun Chaser, the vessel remained at sea with Autumn Moon. Its fate—and that of the expedition—would turn on whether the two ships could survive the weather and find one another again.

The storm and reunion

Ser Eustace later described three successive storms, each worse than the last. Lightning struck Autumn Moon, splitting its mast from crow’s nest to deck. The storm swept men overboard, and Eustace watched a great wave engulf his brother’s ship. The crew cried out that a kraken had taken it, though Eustace understood the destruction as the work of a monstrous wave. Lady Meredith survived, but badly: its sails were torn, its masts splintered, and nine men were missing.

The next morning, the sea had calmed. That afternoon, the crew spotted Sun Chaser in the distance: Elissa Farman had found land and returned to look for them. Her ship had reached three small, previously uncharted islands, and Lady Meredith was towed to their shelter by boats from Sun Chaser. The vessels spent more than a fortnight there making repairs and replenishing their stores. With springs, streams, wild pigs, and fruit-bearing trees, the islands offered fresh water and provisions after the storm; Elissa named them Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya.

The return voyage and further damage

At the islands, the expedition divided. Elissa Farman continued west aboard Sun Chaser, while Ser Eustace turned Lady Meredith east for home. His crew would not agree to sail farther west: they believed a giant kraken had dragged Autumn Moon beneath the sea, and Eustace later said they would have replaced him as captain rather than continue. The ship’s return route proved hazardous in its own right. Contrary winds forced it to tack repeatedly, and storms continued to impede its progress.

The crew took three of the islands’ large grey lizards aboard. One bit the steersman, whose leg turned green and had to be amputated. Later, a huge white bull leviathan struck Lady Meredith and cracked its hull. Eustace changed course for what he believed would be the nearest landfall, the Summer Islands, but the ship was farther south than he had realized and missed them, reaching the coast of Sothoryos instead.

Return to Oldtown

Lady Meredith spent a full year in Sothoryos while its crew worked to make the damaged vessel seaworthy again. Ser Eustace reported that the region held valuable goods, including emeralds, gold, and spices, alongside dangerous animals and other threats. Some of his men disappeared at night; others died from hazards that included a fly bite and worms in freshwater. The ship eventually reached Oldtown, where it arrived on the seventh day of the 59th year after Aegon’s Conquest, almost three years after its departure.

Its condition made the voyage visible before its crew could explain it: the sails were patched, ragged, and salt-stained, the paint had faded and flaked, and the banner was bleached beyond recognition. Ser Eustace came ashore gaunt and sun-burned with only a handful of his original Oldtown crew. Summer Islanders whom he had hired in Sothoryos had replaced many of the lost sailors, and the holds were full of rich cargo. But the ship had not brought back goods from a land beyond the Sunset Sea. For Lady Meredith, the expedition ended not with the discovery Elissa sought, but with survival, costly repairs, and a long return from Sothoryos.