The year 1490.
The sails rippled in the westerly wind, the three strong, imposing masts that supported them shooting skyward and covered by the tiny ant-like figures of sailors scaling the beams, working the ropes, and calling in brash voices to each other to call-up or release the canvas according to orders from on-deck.
The sky was perfect blue and stretched forever in every direction. The heat was stifling, and the smell of over-ripe salted meats, crowded livestock, and unwashed bodies filled the air despite the breeze. The dirty, greasy, men in their raggedy trousers and bandannas marches furiously to and fro, all over the ship, obeying commands and barking orders to each other.
The Merchant Mary-Peace and her three-hundred man crew was nearly halfway through her journey, and the sailors had not seen home for almost nine long months.
Magdalena, at only three and a half feet tall, was rather a curiosity on the ship. She emerged into the daylight clutching the balustrade tightly, and pulled her uncomfortable weight to the top of the wooden galley steps and, legs-apart, and leaning backward, she waddled slowly out on deck, blinking into the strong sunshine. Her smock fell over her large, loose, full breasts and her wench's skirt gathered around her matronly hips and diverted below her hugely pregnant belly.
Sold into ship-service by her parish when she came of age at eighteen years old, she had first been taken to sea on diplomatic voyages for various captains' nightly private pleasure. After her fifth voyage and – owing to her small stature – her third difficult pregnancy, at the age of twenty she was sold to a large merchant shipping company out of Portsmouth, for the morale of the restless sailors.
Away at sea for months, sometimes years, the burly sailors would have their way with her, two or three dozen times a night, and she was bound by her station to service their carnal desire. Knowing no different life, she was for the most part happy to do so. For her remuneration she took a large, well appointed, windowed, cabin at the stern of the ship, just below deck, and was well fed and well clothed.