You’ve said before that “The Old Way” is unsustainable. If your were in charge of the Iron Islands what would you do to make them as powerful and rich as the could given their limited size and resources? What should the Ironborn really be doing right now beside following doomed leader after doomed leader?

evelynvincible

racefortheironthrone:

1. Trade, trade, trade. The Iron Islands should have the biggest fleet possible, and should invest in ocean-going ships that can sail west to Asshai. 

2. Manufacturing. Lots of tin and iron, probably lots of coal around. Start making iron goods and selling them, rather than selling raw iron. 

3. If they hadn’t fucked it up, negotiate with the North for available land. 

At the risk of developing a reputation for being contrary: I would hesitate to take any of the illustrations of A World of Ice and Fire as absolutely accurate depictions of the reality of Planetos.
People described by the text as having skin “the color of oiled teak” are still drawn as moon-white (Lengii female illustration on 306) the Tyrell rose is engraved on the Oakenseat of House Gardner (212), and all peoples not expressly described as ~exotic~ in the text are illustrated as white/European, (including Hyrkoon the Hero in Yi Ti on page 301). 

So, despite the Worldbook illustration depicting a carrack, the text describes the Summer Islanders as people who “scorn to hug the coasts like other seafarers, but instead strike out fearlessly across the ocean deeps, far from the sight of land” (280), and their ships are “capable of carrying sufficient provisions to cross long stretches of ocean whilst withstanding even the fiercest storms at sea,” (278) so I’d say it’s a mistake to write off the Summer Islander’s ships as incapable of making a journey across the Sunset Sea based on an illustration.
(It’s also worth noting that Columbus’ Santa Maria was a three-masted carrack, so even if you want to take the AWoIaF illustrations as solidly canon, I’m not sure I buy the assertion that a ship like the one illustrated couldn’t cross the Sunset Sea) 

Fair point. The Summer Islander ships might make it – assuming they knew about the whole scurvy thing.

However, the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria just barely made the trip to the Caribbean before starving to death. If the Americas hadn’t been there, they would have been dead long before they hit Asia.