The Shipbuilder's Daughter

Maagda Boscher, 24, older daughter of a Hoorn, Holland Shipbuilder, is duty-bound to learn the business and produce an heir for its continued operation. She rebels against her father's choice of husband and marries an Amsterdam diamond cutter, Pier Verbeck. A tragic choice. While Maagda's future is tied to the legacy of shipbuilding and the promising future of trade in Holland's Golden Age, Pier's future is tied to emigration to the New World, a fact he hides from Maagda. Pier views fatherhood as an unwanted burden on the money he'll need for his voyage with Maagda and her dowry. There will be no children. Maagda fights Pier's dream, and failing to convert him, seeks love from a Swedish soldier. She becomes pregnant and alone. In a final showdown with Pier, imprisoned for diamond theft, Maagda triumphs and returns to Hoorn to build her young republic's most prosperous trading empire.