The Gullet, the narrow passage where the waters of Blackwater Bay open upon the narrow sea between Dragonstone and Driftmark, saw the greatest sea battle of the Dance of the Dragons and one of the bloodiest in all the history of Westeros. It was fought when a great war fleet of the Triarchy, the Three Daughters of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh, under the command of the admiral Sharako Lohar, came north to fall upon the domains of House Velaryon. The Sea Snake, Lord Corlys Velaryon, had commanded the seas since the war began; now the Triarchy meant to break his grip, and their ships came in such numbers that they choked the Gullet from shore to shore.
The fighting was long and terrible, ship grappling ship, fire and smoke upon the water, thousands drowning or burning in the press. Into this chaos flew Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, heir to the queen's line, who could not stand idle while his lord grandsire's fleet was beset. Mounted upon his dragon Vermax, he swept low over the enemy ships, raining fire upon their decks; but a dragon over a fleet is a target as much as a terror, and Vermax was brought down by crossbow and scorpion into the sea. The prince, cast into the water, was slain there by the quarrels of the sailors before any could come to his aid, and the beast perished with him.
In the end the Velaryons and their dragons carried the day, and the Triarchy fleet was shattered, though many of its ships won free to raid the coasts before limping home. Yet the victory was purchased at a price Queen Rhaenyra could ill afford, for in Jacaerys Velaryon she had lost her eldest son and the heir to the throne she claimed. The maesters count the Gullet a triumph and a calamity both: the seas were held, but the queen's cause was the poorer for it, and grief was added to the ledger of a war that had already begun to devour the very dragons that had loosed it.