Red Rat probably has the βGryphonβ sword the way his stronger twin has the βCerberusβ sword. So Red Rat might even be a fruit merchant himself. Lol
My Dragon theories center around Dragon being hard to capture, because he has a Storm/Wind based Dragon Fruit (no... it couldn't be...), and he uses Flame Clouds to lift his ship, literally named the Wind Granma, then his Wind powers to move it wherever he wants.
I think Shanks is similar, but his Sword... Gryphon, uses the Gryphon Fruit to pick his ship up by its beams, and carry it through the skies.
"And he's here already?"
Like, sailing is sailing, Shanks can't just go "yo, ship... sail faster."
IMO a big reason the WG have left Morgans stay active so long, despite him being a pain in the ass, is tracking down flying ships is a huge pain for the WG.
Shanks' Sword, Gryphon, turned into a Gryphon, and carried the Red Haired Pirates to Marijoa.
This also explains how Shanks was able to intercept Kaido and King, two known fliers who are very hard to deal with in mid-air: Shanks can summon Gryphon out of his sword to fly, same way Shamrock summoned Cerberus, and had it attack Loki independently of him:
If you look at the bottom right panel, Shamrock still has his blade, after Cerberus has formed.
This is Oda telling us that Shanks can summon his Gryphon, the Mythical Zoan, and command it, while still using his own blade, named Gryphon.
Shanks used the creature Gryphon to fly against Kaido, while still fighting him with his sword.
This makes a lot of sense, as Kaido couldn't just outrun Shanks' ship if it can fly, and Kaido and King aren't 2 v 10ing the Red Haired Pirates in midair over the ocean, when King and Kaido can't swim and they all can.
Shanks being able to fly makes his encounter with Kaido and arrival at Marineford make SOOOOOOO much more sense.