Where was Davos During Balon Greyjoy's First Rebellion?

In this post I am going to "attempt" to look into what exactly Davos was up to during Balon's rebellion. As a smuggler/sailor it seems like he would be involved (serving Stannis), but as far as I know there is no mention of him participating.

Timeframe: Balon rebelled in 289 AC (six years after Robert's Rebellion)

Davos was knighted and given lands on Cape Wrath for his heroics in Robert's Rebellion:

Lord Stannis had rewarded Davos with choice lands on Cape Wrath, a small keep, and a knight's honors . . . but he had also decreed that he lose a joint of each finger on his left hand, to pay for all his years of smuggling. Davos had submitted, on the condition that Stannis wield the knife himself; he would accept no punishment from lesser hands. The lord had used a butcher's cleaver, the better to cut clean and true. Afterward, Davos had chosen the name Seaworth for his new-made house, and he took for his banner a black ship on a pale grey field—with an onion on its sails. The onetime smuggler was fond of saying that Lord Stannis had done him a boon, by giving him four less fingernails to clean and trim. -ACOK, Prologue

and:

Stannis had raised him to knighthood. He had given him a place of honor at his table, a war galley to sail in place of a smuggler's skiff. Dale and Allard captained galleys as well, Maric was oarmaster on the Fury, Matthos served his father on Black Betha, and the king had taken Devan as a royal squire. One day he would be knighted, and the two little lads as well. Marya was mistress of a small keep on Cape Wrath, with servants who called her m'lady, and Davos could hunt red deer in his own woods. -ACOK, Davos I

It should be noted that Davos' warship, Black Betha is likely named after Stannis' great grandmother Betha Blackwood (Egg's wife)

Children's Birth Years

• Dale (oldest)
• Allard (second oldest)
• Matthos (third)
• Maric ("young")
• Devan (287 AC)
• Stannis (289 or 290 AC)
• Steffon (293 AC)

So we know at least his 5 oldest sons were born before Balon's rebellion. Devan's exact age is a bit ambiguous.

Stannis in Balon's Rebellion

We know that Stannis smashed the Iron Fleet in the Straits of Fair Isle. It should be noted that Stannis' war galley Fury wrecked Aeron Greyjoy's longship, Golden Storm causing him to be imprisoned in the bowels of Casterly Rock for the remainder of the war:

In the end the Golden Storm went down off Fair Isle during Balon's first rebellion, cut in half by a towering war galley called Fury when Stannis Baratheon caught Victarion in his trap and smashed the Iron Fleet. Yet the god was not done with Aeron, and carried him to shore. Some fishermen took him captive and marched him down to Lannisport in chains, and he spent the rest of the war in the bowels of Casterly Rock, proving that krakens can piss farther and longer than lions, boars, or chickens. -AFFC, The Prophet

Possibilities

• GRRM just forgot to mention Davos
• Stannis didn't start fully trusting Davos as a knight until after the rebellion (unknown exactly when he was upgraded from a smuggler's ship to a war galley, but Balon rebelled in 289, about 5 years after Stannis knighted him)
• Davos remained in the Stormlands due to young children (his son Stannis was born around this time and he likely had 4 other young children)

After Robert's Rebellion, the next confirmed location (afaik) for Davos is that he was in King's Landing for the tourney on Prince Joffrey's name day (early 298 AC).

TLDR: We get no info on Davos during Balon Greyjoy's first rebellion. There are a few possibilities as to why, but not enough info to make any confirmed predictions.