those he loves lead him to the great tells of arlington cemetery. >> follow us on social media at c-span history, for more in this day in history clips and posts. >> you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, and on holidays to, only on c-span 3. in 16 20, the mayflower traveled from plinth, england to america and the pilgrims settled the play mid colony on the coast of massachusetts. we stopped to robert stone about the virtual mayflower project which uses virtual reality to recreate the ship and the harbor from which it set sail. using avatars and 360-degree images of the virtual world, professor stone describes what life might have been like for the pilgrims and grew. some of the historic features we will see in the virtual rendering

are the 17th century port, plummet castle and the speed will, a ship that was set to sail with the mayflower to america, but was deemed and see where the and returned to port. >> virtual 16 20 has been a big labor of love for me over the last 6 years. it is about trying to use virtual reality to bring a part of england, plymouth in the southwest of the country, back to life. so that people who live there, and people who experience it from abroad, experience what it was like for pilgrims in their sort of mammoth journey across the atlantic back in 16 20. what was the last thing they saw before they got on this leaky, creaky ship? and made their way out into the treacherous atlantic although centuries ago. >> we will jump right in and take a look at some of those 3 sixties.

this is known as smart sickly. if you move over to the right, you can just about make out the mask of the boat. what we decided is we would leave the speed well looking very sorry for herself listening to port and that part of the harbor where there was ship repairs going on. the structure you are seeing now with these fine people having a chat, this is reminiscent of an old fish market. in fact, there was a fish market right up until the 1960s. for example, a lot of fish would be brought and filleted, if they could afford to do so. that would be done here. ships would be delivering all of their fish into the fish filling crew,

who would then box it up and put it on to wagons, or take it directly to some of the stores that would have been available outside the buildings that are in fact behind us. we're looking at this image. again, you can see that we try to make it, in fact you can see the speed well much clear on this picture, the remains of it. you can see that it's quite dirty. it's not very hygienic. today, most of this will be covered by paving slabs or concrete. but in 1620, there was very little of that. there was a lot of wood, a lot of wooden keys and docking areas would have been there. on the left would be the location of a bakery. the baker still exists.

it's the oldest bakery in the uk. that's another claim to fame. the bakery would have provided some of the snacks and biscuits and food for the pilgrims on their final journey. it still sells a variety of bread and biscuits and pasty's and pies even today. it's a very popular bakery. many pubs will come on to the streets a little later on. historically renowned for its pubs and a lot of accommodation. a lot of the people who live in this area would have been fishermen. their wives would have helped them prepare the fish and saw the fish. a lot of the fronts of these houses would have sort of been covered with burrows had we had

time. they would have been selling all kinds of things from wine to wool to fish. we are now getting closer to the gate. you can see the mayflower. the mayflower is in the distance. we will see the location of the cat waters commissioner's office. on the left, if you can move your, if you can look to the left you will see the fish house. just about all you will see, you can see the remains of the chain. there's some argument that says that chain was not around in the

1620s. but it is a historical important feature. if you go over to your right, this is where a part of the southern pool, which is not very repeatable. just to the side of the archway, you can see today where the harbor master's office is. just the right of the steps is today's tourist office. to the right of that is a place called iron house. many of the pilgrims would have their last couple of nights in england. the steps are castle steps. those steps were originally going up to the castle or past the castle. this was also known as damnation ali would you believe. that single root up there had something like 10 pubs, and each pub was a brothel. not a very nice place, but obviously you have sailors coming in,

you have fisherman coming in. obviously, if they wanted all manner of relief, that is where they would head. that is certain where they would go. you can see the representation of island house just to the right of the multi. just behind these houses are famous elizabeth and houses. they are called jetty because each floor is sticking out from the one underneath. that is a jetty house. if you want to turn around -- if you want to see the docking stores. it's politically incorrect, but a historical fact as far as we are aware. it would have brought not just nagging wives, they would have brought all kinds of convicts down here. they would have been stopped, some

of the offenders would have been put into stocks. some of them -- at the moment, we have southern harbor at low tide. if the lady at the end would be dumped, she would be dumping mud as opposed to water. it is not that accurate. if you turn over to you right and look up, you will be able to see the location of plymouth castle. plymouth castle may have been more in the state of ruin then we show here. you can see where you're looking now, that are in the distance, that is an out of date house. that is the only piece of the castle that exists today, the gatehouse. you walk up and you can actually get into see the remains of that gate house. again, i'm sure it would have been much busier than

this. when you're walking -- when you're walking around this in realtime, some people are walking around, some are having an argument. then if you go to the part of the actual entries, the covered walkway down the steps themselves. again, not a controversy over where the real steps exist. there is talk that they are still in existence underneath the ladies restroom in a pub. i'm not too sure that is accurate. but we've got them where they are typically placed in most of the maps that we have actually seen. at the base of the steps, we have a little -- not too dissimilar to the one the mayflower took over to cape cod. they were able to assemble it because it was taken into the cargo bay in 4 pieces. so they had to assemble it and

then took it on to land in province town, and they ultimately took it to land on plummet at the flame -- famed plymouth rock. in the actual virtual reality demonstration, you can see the fish house there and the chain. so again, even though it may not. so observers in plymouth castle could look down and if they were the threat, -- you are automatically taken out of mayfair, in this leaky little boot. then you are able to look in and see around, see the view of plymouth, that the mayflower pilgrims we're seeing. onto the ship itself, you have various programs, the guy set

indirectly in front of you. as you can see from the video later on, not very well at all. he is not at all well, that is bad news because the ship is not done yet. he will not feel very well going over to the americas in the coming weeks. the coming 66 days, that these guys and gals were at sea. again, we can look back into plymouth, where is known as the barbara king, we have left the caspian in some sick everyone, but that is the last year we are going to see before selling out across plymouth sound. past the famous house, as it is today, various features on the house there is a beacon up there, and women love that we did not know. then passed drugs island, or

into the atlantic. and on to the americas. the guy that you are seeing here, with the brothers well above phone hostile is it representation of edward burns low. we decided with this time we had, just fine one representative that was -- obviously because of my representative -- if we have an opportunity to go forward, we will be able to go into places like the captains cabin, and christopher jones, i would like to see the virtual reality of christopher jones the captain. william brewster proffer, the lady she give birth to, the child was born during the actual transit. also john hogg wind, he was a

server of the governor on board. he fell overboard, during the 66 days across the atlantic. but managed, miraculously to grab a rope and pull himself back on board. if he had not done that, and george w. bush would never have ever existed, he is a desert descended of john hoagland. some of these guys, some of the relatives and the descendants today, if we can make these amateurs tell their story, how fantastic that would be. so there we have, we are going into this turn of the ship. that particular structure there which is designed to pull in wires and ropes and to be able to secure the ship and secure

various pieces of cargo coming off of the ship. this is the main deck, this is where you have the steerage office. that is called the capstan, if you go towards the tiny cramped cabins captain, on the left, you can see the stick, that is a very small stick that control the rather. the steerage of the ship. and then you have the captains cabin. then you go to the best captain ship, this is where we believe in mayfair compact in which bradford had a large hand in. this is where, you see the pictures they were all in the compact before they set sail in a little province town in plymouth. this is where the compact would have been signed.

above the captains captain on the poop deck was a tiny office, a tiny of us that contained weapons, it contained maps we, and when things we hope to do in the future, was you can actually go downstairs, and go below. it is very empty, it was nowhere near a spacious as this. the gap between the sitting and the floor is about five foot, you can see the capstone coming through. we need to put the wind list, which have would've brought the anchors in. we obviously would've had the put in many more beds, many more pieces of cargo, spinning wheels, cribs, furniture, animals. this is the area where most of the 102 passengers were tested, and it is tiny. absolutely tiny. it looks quite spacious here,

sadly, we did not have enough time to finish it off. if you look at the captain for example, it capstan was something that i photographed and try to get the accuracy of the capstan from that visit. you can see, just behind the ladder, it may have been a ladder, it may have been a rogue letter, we do not know. we can see the mechanism of the teller, coming down from the deck above. and then the complex wouldn't beam that would go to the, stern and controls the rudder. a lot of things going on, lots of weapons. i cannot even get my has wrapped around, they're trying to get craft cramped on to that for 66 days. really they go on deck. it was calm, and then the stormy and, extraordinary dangerous. , towards the front, or in

other terms towards the bow, that is another area that you can go. that cabin there, which is the barrel of the ship, most of the 30 sailors would have slapped. they would have slapped in this turn as well. that is where most of the cooking would have been done. there is a brick work kiln kind of govern and there, hanging meat. not particularly hygienics. some of the water and beer, obviously they were taking it. beer was healthy urban water, -- that was being brought up from the cargo hold, we're in the deaths of the ship. brought into the that particularly kept that cabin for liberation. we see a fraction of the things

we would love to do, -- that's another thing, if you look at the top of the deck, you can see what looks like a small cannon, i was not aware of this, i was not aware they had these weapons until the plymouth plantation. they had original weapons, in the recreation of the hottest houses in the plymouth plantation. they were filled with tall small tiny minute cannonballs, and they would be used to repel boarders, lot of details that we could do so much more with in terms of making this much more of an educational and historical truth. >> before we exit the three 60, can you talk a little bit about the crossing would have been like. you mentioned they would have been below deck most of the time. but other details, if you did

gain this out, would you want to include? >> one of the original aberrations of the virtual mayflower project was to recreate part of it virtually, but doing it hand-in-hand with navy schools in massachusetts. navy schools in the plymouth area, it would be great if we can then use the mayflower in plymouth and the u.s. but it was like. and then we could work with schools and institutions in massachusetts, so that they can show us what it was like when the mayflower arrived. the crossing itself, would have been horrendous. we know that there were one baby brown board. there was one person had died. we know john hogan had in front of the boards. we knew that the main theme would have split during the most difficult storms. fortunately, they had a jacks group, they were able to put the b back and keep it intact.

if that had gone, the whole ship would have been compromised. there were all kind of events, and hardships of being stuck in that tiny area. the seat sickness would have been her about this, the hygiene would have been horrendous. and again, it is very it is very glamorously portrayed. glamorously portrayed now 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. >> the mayflower project isn't actually your first foray into recreating historic ships. how did you get started in that? >> roughly about 6 years ago, it was undertaken as a labor of love for a ship museum in hastings on the south coast of england. we put together a project to build a 3d version.

the fact we were able to fly a drone and use augmented reality to see the ship from the air on its final resting place. when you fly over, you can see the 3d ship looking down through the masts. it was actually a first. we were invited to quite a few maritime events, conferences and meetings, including meetings of the mayflower 400 trail town. these are towns across england that were involved in being home to many pilgrims before they made their way to london to set off to plummet to board the ship. we were invited to consider whether or not we could do something similar for the mayflower with the 400th anniversary close on the horizon. >> what did some of those early models look like? >> they were quite basic. fortunately, and this is a great thing about virtual realities, there's

a lot of really good assets that you can buy or download free of charge online. you are able to find 2 very basic models. one of the mayflower and one of the ship that accompanied it which is the speedwall. the speedwall never made it and was left in plymouth because she was leaking like a sieve. we put both ships in a virtual reality scene using the same harbor. then we could put that into a virtual reality headset and allow members of the public and schoolchildren and people who were involved in the committee to experience what it might be like if we were given free rein and taking the project to its ultimate conclusion. >> were you given free rein? >> we were given free everything. we got absolutely zero funding for this project. all the early presentations and demonstrations came to nothing. the money had just been sort of spent quite extensively

elsewhere. i live in a town that was home to one of the first pilgrims. we were somehow going to do this. and sure enough, we were able to do it. so we had free rein. we were not at anyone's back and call and managed to deliver it for the 16th of september of this year, which is bang on time to take part in the collaboration's. >> but with some of your research like? >> very tricky, very difficult. there are so few documents that you can turn to. there are maps of the area we were focusing on. the sutton pool area, which was the harbor that was the beginning of plymouth town. the maps were not particularly specific to 1620.

they were either in the 16th century, so the century before, or the century after. it was not clear what buildings had fallen into ruin. it was a very long series of many research studies, consulting with historical experts. one of our team members provided us with information that was incredibly valuable. unlike a lot of our other virtual reality projects, we are never experiencing problems in terms of the amount of data available. but these heritage projects very much rely on a certain amount of interpretation. when you've only got kind of sort of scant resources to go by, then you will never get it one hunted percent right. there will always be controversy and criticism, but we did the best we could with the results --

resources we had. >> talk a little bit about your trip to blend with -- plymouth massachusetts. >> we were going to decide to do the mayflower project. it seems sensible to me to try and find as much information we could, not just about the original mayflower, but the mayflower to. it may flower to was built in a village just around the corner from plymouth, angela and called brick some in 1967. it was given to the united states as a gift and sailed across the atlantic in 1957 to commemorate the landing of the pilgrims. the mayflower too has recently come out of a seaport on the eastern coast after a multi million dollar refit. it has gone back to plymouth. i was lucky enough to find a few pennies in my pocket to go over to boston and then traveled down to massachusetts, traveled down to plymouth actually. i got a fantastic

reception from the crew of the mayflower to. the girls and guys who run the plymouth foundation. without them, we would not have been able to put together the detail we have. we used what we call spherical panoramic cameras trying to get as much information of the deck as we could. we even had one of the cameras up in the crows nest to get a really nice view of the ship from above. i was taken to plymouth plantation where they have this fantastic wardrobe. the assets and antiquities at this place, as well as plans relating to the original mayflower to build and design, i just came back with more photographs than you can imagine. we had been using all these photographs. they even give us access to a

fabulous laser scan of the entire ship that was taken when she was in mystic seaport. to be able to resolve the detail of the rigging was -- without the generous donations of knowledge and details from plymouth plantation, we would have had a lot of problems. >> how do you translate those details you found to a virtual world? >> the photographs are excellent and that we were able to take photographs of some of the actors and actresses that they have on board performing the duties of the crew or the behaviors of the pilgrims. to take those and infuse them, to take our virtual humans, the avatars as we call them, and put them into relatively accurate dress and to get them doing things on board the ship or walking around the harbor. that was one thing we could do.

we could directly map from the photographs of the people in plymouth, massachusetts, on to the virtual humans. we were able to take pictures of the wooden beams. again, we can use the pictures to map on to our 3d model to make it look more realistic. we were able to use some of the 3d information to convert the performs of information. for example, with the laser scanned, we can convert that into 3d and then put it into small detail. so every piece of information gets used and nothing is wasted. >> how are you able to come across the same type of details for the town, because that is a big part of the project as well? >> well, the town and the area of sutton pool in plymouth, it was very difficult. we used a combination of data sources. obviously, the maps that i have already

described gave us some degree of confidence about the potential layout of that part of the town back in the 16 twenties. the buildings were predominantly medieval. that is quite fortunate because there are some very good asset sites online where you can buy medieval buildings. they are fairly basic. so what we could use the 3d structure and then we could take some of the photographs of older buildings and some of the buildings that exist in sutton harbor or sutton pool. we can map those to give some degree of authenticity. but again, a lot of interpretation. a lot of advice from historians to make sure we do not go over the top with something that looked completely out of place and out of time. >> what was plummet like in 1620? what type of town was it? >> it was smelly. it was dirty.

it was suffering from cholera. some of the water that was taken on board from plymouth onto the mayflower was probably cholera infected. and there's a lovely story -- >> the big controversy there was plymouth, the final the parting point, or was it new line. a great rivalry in that part of the world. there was a lot -- it was unsanitary, a lot of gummies taking place of the building. apparently mayflower sailed, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the actual harbor itself would have been very smelly, the rigidity, a lot of steam coming out of the water. so in general, that very nice. and a lot of trade. trade in fish, it was a huge

official import, and wine, will, coal that was being delivered into plymouth and parts of england from that time. treasure, obviously galleons that were attacked, and the treasure was taken. quite a hustling, bustling little town. 30, and filthy nonetheless. >> would it have been familiar to the pilgrims? >> 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 from lincoln show, and to the north and east of plymouth, where the puritans or saints as they were called, all the 102 passengers, 50% were pilgrims, the other 50% will be called strangers.

they were not particularly strong in terms of the rejection of the james church of england. so the puritans came from places that were illegal, the illegally set up a church of worship. before it went to holland. they will head people from hollander who came over and join the ship, possibly from south london. plymouth would have been their final call import. and -- they had to fight accommodation, they were making arrangements for what to do with the passengers aboard the speed well. who obviously we're not going to travel on the speed well, some of them went back home, some of them went back to holland, the rest of them go until the very crowded mayflower. it would have been very unfamiliar and quite an alien place to those people who came

from a country background. >> how long had most of them been away from england before they set sail? >> many years. they had to try to escape england first, but they were captured before the king and chastised. then they managed to get away to lived in for a few years, and guys like william brewster, and william bradford and at the guys who were very passionate, very staunch practices practitioners at the puritan faith. and so they were allowed back into england by james the first, who then gave them his blessing to get them out of the country. he said that they can go to the new world, and they can go to the americas, providing they come back and carry themselves respectively. he was actually glad to see

them leave. but they were in and out of england, and then down to the ships. fortunately not being chased were executed by the king, but gently encouraged to go somewhere else. >> professor bob's, thank you so much. >> great pleasure, thank you jim. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> next, we will hear the story of the pilgrims across the in 16 20, and the origin of the mayflower compact. we will also tour be flower to. a reproduction of the original ship, see what life was like on board. >> i am richard puckering, and we are at -- in plymouth massachusetts. mayflower too is behind me, it will still be production of the ship that brought the pilgrims to new england and 16 20. the writer by the name of