>> to mark the 400th anniversary of the pilgrim's arrival in plymouth, massachusetts, american history tv features several programs looking back to the year 1620, we will talk to robert stone, director of the virtual mayflower project, which uses virtual reality to re-create the ship in the plymouth england harbor from which it set sail. in 1620, the mayflower traveled from plymouth, england to america, and the pilgrim settled the plymouth colony on the coast of massachusetts. we talked to robert stone about the virtual mayflower project, which uses virtual reality to re-create 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 would have been like for

the pilgrims and the crew. some of the historic features we will see in the virtual rendering are the 17th-century port. plymouth castle, and the speedwell, a ship that was set to sail to america but was deemed on seaworthy and returned to the port. >> it has been a big day for me over the last 6 years, it's about trying to use virtual reality to embark to new england, for people who live there, to experience what it was like for the pilgrims and their journey across the atlantic in 1620. what was it like for them? what was it like before they got on the creaky ship all those centuries ago? >> we are going to jump right in and take a look at some of those 360s.>> what we have here

at the moment is known as the soft key, on the speedwell, there was a little shipwreck, the structure you will see now, people having a chat, this is reminiscent of a fishmarket, right up to the 1960s. so this is where the fish would be brought, but that was around here, ships would deliver all of the fish to the crew, and

they would then box it up, or take it directly to the stores where it would be available outside the buildings that are in fact, right behind us. we are looking at the village. and again, you can see the speedwell much more clearly. you can see, it is quite dirty. not very hygienic. today, most of this would be uncovered by paving slabs or concrete, but in 1620, there was very little of that. now, to the left, would be the location of the bakery, and it

still exists. it's the oldest bakery in the uk , and it would provide a similar snack, food that the pilgrims would take on the mayflower for their final journey. they still sell a variety of breads, even today, it's a very popular bakery. there were many pubs on the streets as well, so the people who lived here would have been fishermen and they would help to prepare the fish but, these would have been

covered with barrels and shelves . and just a little bit closer, you can see the mayflower in the distance, that will show you the commissioners. if you look to the left, you can see the fish house. just about, you can see the remains of the chains coming from the fish house.

not much production was around in the 1620s. if you look to the right, just to the side of the archway, you can see the steps to the office . this is the house where many pilgrims would have their last couple of nights and england. those steps originally went up to the castle. this was also known as damnation alley, would you believe? it had something like 10 pubs.

obviously you've got sailors coming in, you've got fishermen coming in, that is certainly where they would go. you can see the iron house, just to the left. and just behind these houses, as they grow up, each floor is used. >> so, they got all kinds of

conflict down here, at the moment, we had low tide, so this is not that accurate. you can see the location of the castle, it may be more in a state of ruin then it shows here. you can see, that tower just off in the distance, that is the only piece of the castle that exist today. and you can see the remains of that bay house. so again, these guys are moving

around, it looks like they are having an argument. going to the actual entry, the covered walkway, that goes to the steps themselves. there is talk that the steps are in existence under the ladies restroom, not too sure if that is accurate but, where they are typically placed. at the base of the steps, we have a shalit, not very similar to the one that is on the mayflower

. then they took it to the land on plymouth rock. and in the demonstration, you can see the chain, so again, even though they were not aware of it in the 1620s, it was definitely an important part. you can then also automatically see the view of plymouth, that the mayflower shows in this

scene, and we've got the children and a guy with a hat on, and the ship hasn't even left the harbor yet. so these people are going to bid their fell well to the americas in the coming week. when you look back into plymouth , that is what they say before sailing out. if you look at the

map, it is a little beaten up there, we don't know, and onto the americas. the guy that you see here is a representation, so we decided to put him in a timely hat, obviously because of his relationship.

>> and this was a servant of the governor that was aboard the ship, he fell overboard going across the atlantic, but managed miraculously to grab a rope and pull himself back on board. absolutely incredible some of these guys, if we could get these avatars to tell their stories, how fantastic that would be. so, we are going into the stern of the ship, that particular structure there, which is designed for the ropes, to be

able to secure the ship, and secure the pieces coming off the ship. this is the main deck, and the steerage office. if you go further towards the tiny cramped area, to the left, that controlled the steerage of the ship. and this is the mayflower compact, and this is the compact before they set sail, this is where it would be drawn

up inside. there was another tiny office, a little cabin that contained weapons, maps, and one thing we hope for in the future, if we could go downstairs, it is nowhere near as spacious as this. the gap between the ceiling and the floor is only five foot, you can see the captain coming through. this would have brought the anchors in, and it had many more beds, many more pieces of cargo, furniture, animals, this is the area where most of the passengers would have stayed at the time. it

looks quite spacious here, but again, if you look at the capsule for example, you can see it's just behind the latter. but, you can see the mechanism of the pillar coming down from the deck, and the stern and it controls the lever. so a lot of elements, a lot of weapons, i couldn't get my head around what it would have been like to be cramped like that for 66 days. it was calm, but incredibly stormy, and extraordinarily dangerous.

and towards the front, there is a living area you can go to, that is where most of the sailors would have slept in the stern as well. and that is where most of the cooking would have been done, they had an oven in there, and hanging meat, not particularly hygienic. so a lot of that would be brought up from the cargo from the deck of the ship, to that particular cabin for preparation.

if you look up toward the top of the deck, you can see most of the small cannon. we didn't even have these weapons until the plantation, again, we had two original weapons, the re- creation, and these are filled up with tiny, miniature cannonballs. so, a lot of detail , this is much more of an educational and historical toll. >> before we exit the 360, can you talk a little bit about what the crossing would have been like?

you mentioned they would have been below deck most of the time. what other details would you want to include?>> well, one of my missions of that project, was to almost re-create the scene virtually, but in the plymouth area, because we can use the mayflower in plymouth to show what it was like, and then we could work with institutions in massachusetts so they can show us what it was like for the mayflower to arrive. the crossing itself would have been horrendous, we know he was swept overboard, we know that one of the main beams actually split during the most difficult storm. but, they were able to

put the beam back intact. otherwise, the whole ship would have been compromised. so, just the hardships of being stuck in that tiny area, getting seasick would have been horrendous, the hygiene would have been horrendous and again, it's very glamorously pretrade, we see the pilgrims leading, but they must have been so glad to get off the ship, really. >> the mayflower project isn't actually your first foray into re-creating historic ships. how did you get started into that?>> the first project, it must have been 6 years ago, it was taken again as a labor of love, off the coast of england, so we put together a project to build a 3-

d version, and the fact that we were able to fly a drone and see the ship from the air, on its final resting place, we were able to look down on the map, on the ship itself. we would like to see many maritime events, and many of the pilgrims, before they made their way to london, they would board the ship and we would like to consider whether or not this is something we would consider for the mayflower. >> and what did some of those early models look like? >> and they were quite basic, fortunately, there are a lot of

really good assets that you can buy online, and you're able to find two very basic models, one of the mayflower and the other ship that never made it, it was left behind. and to put these two ships into a virtual scene, and then we could put that out to members of the public and schoolchildren and people in boston to experience what it might be like if we were given free reign and look at the conclusion. >> were you given free reign?>> we got absolutely zero funding for this project, all of the presentations and demonstrations came to nothing, the money that

was spent could have been spent elsewhere but, they are currently living in the home to winslow, one of the key pilgrims who was on the mayflower. but, somehow we were going to do it and sure enough, we were able to do it, so we did have free reign. it is on time to take part in one of the conventions. >> what was your research like? >> very tricky, very difficult, there were so few documents you could turn to. there were maps of the area that we were focusing on, the harbor, that really was the beginning. but, the maps were

not particularly specific to 1620, they were either in the 16th century, so the century before or the century after, so it was a very long project with many research studies. consulting with historical experts, one of our team members provided us with information that was incredibly valuable. but, i don't know any projects where we are not experiencing any problems but, we very much rely on certain interpretation, and you have such scarce resources to go by. so, yes, you're never going to get it 100% right, there's going to be controversy and criticism but, we did the best

we could with the resources we had. >> talk about your trip to plymouth, massachusetts.>> after we decided we were going to do the mayflower project, it seemed sensible to me to try to find as much as we could, not just about the original mayflower, but the mayflower two, it was built on the beach just around the corner from plymouth, england, and given to the united states as a gift, and was sailed across the atlantic to commemorate the pilgrims. it came out of a portal on the east coast, a major multibillion-dollar region. i was lucky enough to find a few pennies in my pocket to go over to boston and traveled to

massachusetts. and i got fantastic reception from the crew. without that visit, we would not be able to put together the detail that we have. so i spent time on the mayflower with the panorama cameras, trying to get as much information as i could. we had a really nice view of the ship from above. and it was taken to the plantation, as well as plans related to the mayflower two build and design. we have been using these graphs, they even

gave us access to a fabulous laser scan of the entire ship, and to be able to resolve the detail of the timbers. that is the kind of knowledge that we needed. >> how do you translate the details and information you found in plymouth, massachusetts to the virtual world?>> we were able to take photographs on board, of the actors performing the duties of the pilgrims, so we were able to take our avatars, and made them up, pretty accurately dressed in their clothing, so

we could directly map the photographs of the people in plymouth, massachusetts with virtual humans. and we were able to take several pictures of the beams, so again, we used the pictures to map onto the model, making it look more realistic. we were able to use the 3-d information to convert different forms, for example, the laser scan, then we would put in a little bit more detail. so every piece of information that was used was never wasted. >> how were you able to come across the same kind of detail for the town because that is a big part of the project as well.>> well, the town and the area in plymouth again was very, very difficult. we used a combination of

sources, obviously the maps gave us some degree of confidence but the potential layout of that part back in the 1620s, the buildings were predominantly medieval, and that is quite fortunate because there are some very good classic sites online that you could find these buildings. we could use the 3-d structure and then take photographs of all of them, even ones that exist today. you can give them some degree of authenticity. but again, it's all up to interpretation, to make sure that we didn't go over the top with something that looks completely fake.

>> what was plymouth like in 1620? what kind of town was it? >> it was snowy, dirty, it was surrounded by the water, that was probably infected. so, that was a big controversy there. great rivalry across the world. and it was unsanitary. but, the harbor itself was very smelly, very dirty, a lot of steam coming off the water. and, it

was a huge fishing port and wine, wool, linens from different parts of england. treasure, obviously. so, quite a hustling and bustling kind of town, but dirty, nonetheless. >> what it really familiar to the pilgrims? >> no. pilgrims joined the mayflower, but most came to the east of plymouth, and of the passengers, 50% were what we

called orphans, the other 50% was strangers, so particularly strong to their rejection that they gave to us. >> we had some people who came over to join the ship in london, so plymouth would have been their final port. many of them stayed in the buildings like the iron house. some of them went back home, and the rest of them got on the very crowded mayflower. so it was very unfamiliar to those people who came from

those areas.>> how long has most of them been away from england before they set sail?>> many years, many years. they had tried escaping before, but they were captured and brought before the king and were chastised. then, people like william radford, and other guys, very passionate, very staunch practices or practitioners i should say, they went right back into england by saint james i, who then gave them his blessing. he said, you can go to the americas , provided that they carry

themselves respectably. fortunately, not being chased or executed by the king but gently encouraged to go somewhere else.>> robert stone, thank you so much.>> my pleasure. >> you are watching american history tv, every weekend on c- span3 , explore our nation's past, american history tv on c- span3 , created by america's cable television companies and today we are brought to you by these cable television companies to provide this to viewers as a public service. >> american history tv, on c- span3 , exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend.

coming up sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern on real america, the weeklong goodwill trip to asia in 1962, which documents the former first lady's tour in pakistan. and at 8:00 p.m. on the presidency, take a virtual tour of the dwight d eisenhower presidential library and museum located in kansas, showcasing the legacy of the nation's 34th president. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >> next, we will hear the story of the pilgrims crossing in 1620 and the origins of the mayflower compact, we will also tour mayflower two, a reproduction of the original ship to see what life was like on board. next, we will hear the story of the pilgrims crossing in 1620 and the origins of the mayflower compact. we will also tour mayflower two, a reproduction of the