Recognizing that the battle is lost and there is nothing she can do, Elizabeth decides that the only thing she can do is jump overboard and swim for land. She knows she can’t climb down for risk of being caught, so she steels herself to jump overboard from the crow’s nest. The nest is a good ways from the edge of the boat, but with the swaying of the boat she know she can easily time her jump to send her clear of the side.
Elizabeth proceeds to strip off her uniform, the heavy cloth of which will weigh her down as she tries to make the long swim. This leaves her standing in only her undershirt, which is just long enough to cover her pelvis. Nevertheless, unaccustomed to being so exposed, she feels a great deal of anxiety about setting of in such a state. However, as she hears the screams of a boarding party down below, she knows that she has little choice. Waiting for the mast to tilt the right way, she takes a leap off the crow’s nest and dives neatly in to the water.
Not waiting to see if she has been noticed, Elizabeth swims as far as she can underwater before coming up for air. Sparing a brief look back at the boat, it does not seem as though anyone has noticed her. Once she has fled a reasonably distance from the two ships, Elizabeth settles in to a slow, steady backstroke so as to conserve energy for the long swim.
Her thin undershirt soaked through, the details of Elizabeth’s body were readily visible in the clear tropical water. Her pink nipples and bush of red pubic hair the only thing breaking up the bright white of her skin. From beneath the water, she must have seemed like a tasty morsel to whatever water going predators existed in these alien waters. The thought kept Elizabeth swimming at a decent clip for several hours.
With a great deal of time on her hands, Elizabeth considers how she came to be in this position. Elizabeth’s home country, Vaeland, was a small, resource rich island monarchy. Since time immemorial, it had been at war with Ordell, the mainland nation nearest Vaeland. The war had been at a relatively quiet stalemate for two centuries. Vaeland’s navy was so much more powerful than Ordell’s that Ordell dare not assault Vaeland over sea. At the same time, Vaeland’s standing army was far too small to launch an effective ground assault on Ordell.
Recently, however, one of Vaeland’s rare female councilors to King Reginald, had successfully convinced the King of a plan that would allow Vaeland to swell the size of its army to a size sufficient to launch a ground assault. The plan was to try to use women to crew the majority of Vaeland’s navy. Elizabeth Masters volunteered and was chosen as part of a prototype all female crew that would see if women were capable of running a ship effectively. After a year of training, Ms. Masters and a crew of one hundred boarded the HMS Pulchritudinous with a two year mission to patrol the tropical extent of Vaeland’s naval influence.
However, eventually she knew that she must rest or drown. Floating on her back, she rested as best she could, closing her eyes.
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