In 1620, the mayflower traveled from plymouth england to america. And the pilgrims settled the Plymouth Colony on the coast of massachusetts. We talked to robert stone about the virtual mayflower project, which uses Virtual Reality to recreate the ship and harbor from which they set sail using , avatars and 360degree images of the Virtual World, professor stone described what life might have been like for the pilgrims and crew. Some historic features we will port,e the 17thcentury plymouth castle, at a ship that was set to sail with the mayflower to america but was deemed on seaworthy and returned to port. Prof. Stone virtual 1620 has been a labor of love, to use Virtual Reality to bring up part of england, the west of the country, black to life. So people who live there can experience what is like for the pilgrims in their traumatic journey across the atlantic in 1620. What was the last thing they saw before they got on this leaky, creaky ship . And made their way out into the treacherous atlantic, centuries ago . We are going to jump in and take a look at some of those 3 60s. Prof. Stone where we arent the , it is known as the smart key. Canou move to the right you make out the speedwell. We will leave it looking sorry for herself leaving part in the , where there were ship repairs going on. The structure you are seeing now where these fine people having a reminiscent of an , so a lot of the fish would be brought and filletted, that would be done here. Ships would be more and oredvering their fish mo and delivering their fish to those who would box it up and put onto wagons or taken outside thestores buildings behind us. To make it look much clearer. You can see that it is quite dirty, a lot of mud, not very hygienic. Today, most of this will be covered by paving slabs or concrete. But in 1620, there is very little of that. A lot of would, a lot of was in docking areas would have been there. On the left would be the location of the bakery. This bakery still exists. It is the oldest bakery and the ok in the u. K. It would have provided snacks, biscuits and food, that the pilgrims would have taken on board the mayflower for their final journey. It still sells a variety of breads and biscuits and pies, even today. It is a very popular bakery. Many pups will come onto the street later which is renown for its pubs, and a lot of accommodations. The people who lived in this area would have been fishermen and their wives who would help prepare and sell the fish. Is of theseiece houses had we had time, what have been covered with barrels, and shelves, with all kinds of fish. From a wine to we are now getting closer to the gate. You can see the mayflower in the distance. Moored in thats area, and we will see the Current Location of the harbor commissioners office. On the left you can see the , of the fish house. You can see the remains of the chain coming from the fish house. There is some argument that the chain was not around in the 1620 but it is a historically important feature. , anou look to your right area not very reputable. To the side of the archway you can see where today the harbormasters offices, just to the right of these steps is todays tourist office. House right of that is a where the pilgrims, many pilgrims, what have had the last couple of nights in england. C eps are kabul steps astle steps and they would have originally gone to the castle. This is known as damnation alley, that single root had 10 pubs. Route had 10 pubs and each pub was a brothel. Not a very nice place. But you have sailors coming in, and if theyming in, wanted all manner of relief, that is where they would go. House to thend right. Houses, and behind this, the famous elizabethan house. Theyre called jetty because as they go up, each floor sticks out more than the one underneath, and is call eight jetty house. A jetty house. ,f you want to see the stores they wouldve brought not just wives but also convicts here. Stocks,uld have been some of the offenders would have been put into stocks. At the moment we have the Southern Harbor at low tide. So someone would have been dumped in mud as opposed to water. You can seeup, plymouth castle. Plymouth castle may have been more in a state of ruined then we show here. Where you are looking out you can see the tower in the distance, that is an outer gatehouse, and that is the only piece of the castle that exists today. Canwalk up a hill and you get in and see the remains of that gatehouse. Again, i am sure it would be prettier than this. When you are Walking Around in these guys are moving around and some are having an argument, and we can go to the part of the actual entry. A covered walkway down to the steps themselves. Over, a lot of controversy whether the real mayflower steps exist. There is talk they are still in existence underneath the ladies i am notin one pub, too sure that is accurate. But we have them where they are tickly placed in most of the maps that we have seen. At the base of the steps we have a little [indiscernible] not to similar to the one the mayflower took to cape cod, and they were able to assemble it because it was taken in the cargo bay and four pieces. They had to assemble it and then they took it onto land in , and they took it to land on plymouth at the famed plymouth rock. And then in the virtualreality demonstration you can see the fish house there. Evenan see the chain, though it may not have been there in the 1620s it was the most important part of the fortification. So observers in plymouth castle could look down and if they thought there was a frat a threat the chain up. And that would protect them from this french or the spanish. You are taken out in this leaky boat, and are able to look thend, to see the view, last few of plymouth that the mayflower pilgrims would have seen. The system will not take you up onto the ship itself will take you up onto the ship itself. And we have various pilgrims and crew. The guy in front of you with a hat on, is not well, and that is bad news because they ship has not left harbor yet, so he is not going to farewell going over to the americas in the coming these the coming 66 days guys and gals were at sea. Plymouth. K back into the castle in some state of ruin, probably the last few they would see before sailing out. Cross Plymouth Sound when you look at the map there may have been a beacon or a wind mill, we do not know and then pass drakes island, into the atlantic. And on to the americas. Here withu are seeing the bouffant hair style is our representation of edward winslow. Put one avatar representative of unknown character. And winslow obviously because the present day [indiscernible]. If you have the opportunity to go forward we would be able to go into places like that captains cabin. And Christopher Jones, i would like to do a virtualreality of Christopher Jones and get them to inflame their stories prayed william brewster, bradford get them to explain their stories. William brewster, bradford, a woman who gave birth during the transit. Was a servantund of the governor across on board the ship and he has amazing stories. He fell overboard during the 66 day crossing of the atlantic, but managed miraculously to grab a robe and pulled himself back on board. And pulledope himself back on board. If he had not done that, George W Bush and george bush would never have existed because they are descendents of john howland. The relatives and descendents, if we can make avatars tell their story, how fantastic that would be . So we are going into the stern of the ship. Structure was designed to pull in wires and rope and secure secure the ship and various pieces of cargo coming onto the ship. Is where you here have the steerage office. That is a captain. Capstan. You can see the stick on the left. That was a small stick that controlled the rudder, the steerage of the ship. Then you have the captains cabin, obviously the best cabin on the ship. Own he hadhis his own little bed. This is where we believe that mayflower compact and which bradford had a large hand, when you see the picture they are signing the compact before they to provincetown and plymouth. This is where the compact would have been drawn up and signed. Above the captains cabin on the poop deck is another tiny office. It is a little cabin which would and oneweapons, maps thing we hope to do in the future, while you can go , it wasrs, go below nowhere near as spacious as this. The gap between the ceiling and floor is about five feet. You can see the capstan coming through. To put in what would have brought in the anchors, and many more beds, many more pieces of cargo, spinning wheels, cribs, furniture, animals. This is the area where most of the 102 passengers would have stayed, and it is tiny. It is absolutely tiny. It looks spacious here. Sadly, we did not have time to finish it off. ,ut if you look at the capstan that was something i photographed at plymouth plantation to get the accuracy from that visit. Ladder. See behind the it may have been a ladder or a rope ladder, we do not know. You can see the mechanism of the tiller, coming down from the deck above. And then the complex wooden beam that goes to the stern, and the rudder. Again, a lot of things going on, a lot of armaments, weapons. I cannot even get my head around what would it would have been like to have been cramped on that 466 days. Rare for 66 days. Rarely would they go on deck. And then stormy and extort nearly dangerous. Extraordinarily dangerous. Toward the bow there is another area you can go to. Where most ofre, the 30 sailors would have slept. They would have slept in the stern as well although that was reserved for officers. And that is where most of the cooking would have been done. There is a brickwork kiln or oven there. Hanging meat. Again, not particularly hygienic. Some of the water and beer because obviously they were taking it. Bear was healthier than water because water was badly infected. That would be brought up from in the depths of the ship and brought into here. We have done a fraction of the things. We would love to get sponsor to do if you look to the top of the deck you can see what looks like a small cannon. A swivel gun. I was not aware he had these weapons until plymouth plantation. Theyriginal weapons had two original weapons in the recreations of the houses at plymouth plantation. These were filled with tiny, miniature cannonballs. Repel boarbe used to ders, if they were attacked at sea. Lots of detail we can do more with in terms of making this a more educational and historical tool, and we live in hope. Before we exit the 360, can you talk about what the crossing would have been like . You mentioned they would have been below deck most of the time. What other details, if you did game this out, would you want to include . Prof. Stone one of the original ambitions of the virtual mayflower project was to almost recreate part of the ceiling virtually. To do it handinhand with navy schools in massachusetts. Because it would be great if we could then use the mayflower and plymouth to show schools in the u. S. What it was like on the journey. That we could work with schools and institutions in massachusetts, so they could show us what it was like when the mayflower arrived. The crossing itself would have been horrendous. We know there was one baby born. We know one person died. We note john howden had been thrown overboard had gone overboard. We know one of the main beams split during one of the most difficult storms. Fortunately, they had a jackscrew and were able to put the beam back and keep it intact. If that had gone the whole ship would have been compromised. There were all kinds of events, and hardships, of being stuck in that tiny area. The seasickness would have been horrendous. The hygiene would have been horrendous. It is glamorously portrayed when you see the pilgrims kneeling and praying next to plymouth rock, but they must have been so glad to get off that ship. Really, they must have been glad. Project is notr actually your first foray into recreating historic ships. How did you get started in that . Project,ne the first six years ago, was undertaken, again, as a labor of love, for the Shipwreck Museum in hastings, on the south coast of england. We put together a project to version. The fact that we were able to fly a drone and see the ship from the air, on its final resting place. When you fly the drone you can see the 3d and you can map that onto the ship itself, a world first. As a result we were invited to a lot of maritime conferences and lowergs including the may 400 trail towns across england mayflower 400 trail, towns across england that were homes of the pilgrims before they made their way to london to set up for plymouth to board the ship. We were invited to consider whether we could do something similar for the mayflower, with the 400 anniversary close on the horizon. What did some early models look like . Prof. Stone they were quite basic. The great thing about Virtual Reality, there are a lot of really good assets you can buy or Download Free of charge online. We were able to find two basic models, one of the mayflower and one of the ship that accompanied the mayflower, the speedwell. That was left in plymouth because she was leeching like a sieve. We were able to put these two shifts into Virtual Reality scenes using the same harbor model we used before. Then we could put that into the Virtual Reality headset and allow members of the public and schoolchildren, and people involved in the trails Town Committee to experience what might be like, if we were given free reign and take in the project to its ultimate conclusion. Rein . You given free prof. Stone we were given everything, we got zero funding for this project. All the early presentations and demonstrations came to nothing. The money had been spent extensively elsewhere. But being english born and bred and living in a town with a guy called edward winslow, one of the key pilgrims who sailed on the mayflower, it became a labor of love. We are going to do this, somehow. Sure enough, we were able to do it. So we had free reign. We were not at anyones beck and call. Theanaged to deliberate by september 16 this year, on time to take part in the commemorations. What was your Research Like . Prof. Stone very tricky, very difficult. There are so few documents you can turn to. Area wee maps of the were focusing on, the southern area, the harbor, that really was the beginning of some of the tower and ultimately plymouth city. But the maps were not specific to 1620. 16thwere either in the century, the century before, or the century after. It was not clear what buildings had fallen into ruin, what level the street was. So it was a long series of Many Research studies. Studies. Esearch consulting with historical experts. Team, read, one of our provided information that was valuable. Unlikeother products, other historic projects, we did trouble, bute these heritage projects rely on a certain amount of interpretation. And when you only have scant resources to go by, that yes, youre never going to get it one had a percent right 100 right and there will always be controversy and criticism, but we did the best we could with the resources we had. Talk a bit about your trip to plymouth, massachusetts . Prof. Stone well, after we decided we were going to do the mayflower project, it seems sensible to me to try to find as much information as we could not just about the original mayflower, the mayflower ii. It was built in the village around the corner from plymouth, 1957, and given to the United States as a gift. It was sailed across the commemorate1957, to the landing of the pilgrims. Has recently ii come out of the mastic seaport on the eastern coast, after a domestic seaport on the eastern coast after a major multimillion dollar retrofit. I was able to go over to boston and massachusetts, and traveled to plymouth. I got a fantastic reception from the crew of mayflower ii. And the guys and gals who run plymouth penn tatian. Without that plymouth plantation. And without that visit we would not be able to put together the detail that we have. So i spent time on the mayflower of 360degreees panoramic cameras, trying to get as much information about the decks as i could. We had one camera in the crows nest to get a nice view of the ship from above. Plymouthen to plantation, where they have a fantastic wardrobe. The assets and antiquities they have at this place, as well as plans relating to the original mayflower ii build and design. I came back with more photographs than you can imagine. And we have been using all of these photographs. They even gave us access to a fabulous laser scan, of the entire ship, that was taken when she was in the seaport. To be able to resolve the detail the timbers and rigging, without the kind and generous donations of knowledges knowledge and images from plymouth plantation, we would a lot of problems. How do you translate details he found in plymouth, massachusetts, to a future role 28 Virtual World to a Virtual World . Prof. Stone we were able to take photos of actors and actresses on board performing duties of the crew. We could take those and use them to take our virtual humans, our avatars, and put them in relatively accurate dress and clothing, and get them doing things on board the ship or working around the harbor, that was one thing we could do. We would directly map from intographs of the people plymouth, massachusetts, onto virtual humans. We were able to take pictures of the wooden beams. We can use the pictures to map onto our 3d models to make them look more realistic. We could use the 3d information. We have ways we can convert different forms of 3d information, for exam of the laser scan. We would convert that into 3d and put in more detail. Every piece of information gets used, nothing is wasted. How are you able to come across the same type of detail for the town . That is a big part of the project as well. Area stone the town and of southern claw in plymouth, that was very difficult. We used a combination of resources. Obviously the maps gave us some degree of confidence in the potential layout of that part of town in the 1620s. The buildings were predominantly medieval. That is fortunate, because there are some very good asset sites online, where you can buy medieval buildings. There are fairly basic. So we could use the 3d structure and take some photographs of older buildings. Buildings that exist in Southern Harbor or southern claw today, and match those images, the brickwork, the blocks, and give them some degree of authenticity. A lot of interpretation, at a lot of advice from historians, to make sure we do not go over the top, was something that looked completely out of place were out of time. Plymouth like in 1620 . Prof. Stone it was smelly. It was dirty. It was suffering from cholera. Boardf the water taken on from plymouth onto the mayflower was probably cholerainfected. That they mayry have gone to a fishing town in cornwall for the sailed across the atlantic. The controversy, was plymouth the final departing point . Some great rivalry in the part of the world. Unsavory. A lot of ellies taking waste away from the links a lot of oflies take gui a lot gullies taking waste away. It wouldve been smelly and dirty. Steam coming off the water. In general, not very nice. And a lot of trade. Trade in fish, it was a huge fishing port. And wine, wool, coal was being delivered in plymouth from parts of england. Treasure, from galleons that , and boarded with their treasures taken. Quite a hustling, bustling little town. But dirty and filthy nonetheless. Would have been familiar to the pilgrims . Prof. Stone no. It would not have been familiar to the pilgrims. There were pilgrims from plymouth that joined the mayflower. But most of the pilgrims came , and the northre and east of plymouth, where the puritans, for saints, as they were called. Passengers, 50 were pilgrims, and the other 50 were called strangers. So they were not particularly strong in terms of their rejection of james the first church of england. So the puritans came from places where they illegally set up a church of worship, before they went to holland. There were people from hollen who wouldve come over and joined the ship, possibly at southhampton, possibly in london. Plymouth would have been their final calling port. In buildings like the accommodation , they were making arrangements for what to do with passengers aboard the speedwell. Who were obviously not going to travel on the speedwell and some of them want back home, some went to holland, and someone got on the crowded mayflower. It would have been an unfamiliar and alien place from those people who came from a [indiscernible] background. How long had most of them been away from england before they set sail . Prof. Stone many years, many years. England tried to escape and james first once before but were captured and brought before the came and were chastised. Then they managed to get away to lyden a few years and after that were people like william brewster, and william bradford, and other guys, who are very passionate. There were very staunch practitioners of the puritan faith. So they were led back into whoand, by james the first, then gave them his blessing, to get them out of the country. He said they could go to the new world. They could go to the americas. Providing come i think he said, that they treated themselves respectably. Were in and out of england and then down to the ships. Fortunately, not being chased or executed, by the king, but gently encouraged to go somewhere else. Bob stone, thank you