the mayflower virtual tour

Take a virtual tour of our spaces, an Autograph Collection Hotel in Washington DC

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Let us bring to life the unique role of the Mayflower Hotel in the capital’s history with this crafted experience with your own expert local guide. Hear tales of the world’s most powerful capital drips with scandals and is embroiled in the underbelly of global clandestine efforts.

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Mayflower Memorial 3D Interactive Model

Our Mayflower Memorial 3D Interactive Model was set up by Friends of the Maritime Archaeology Trust to celebrate Mayflower 400 , a commemoration of Mayflower , the ship that carried the Pilgrim Fathers from England to America in 1620. The 3D model offers a detailed, interactive exploration of the Mayflower Memorial, including an annotated tour of the monument. It is fully accessible online and can be used as an educational resource or for research by anyone wishing to explore the history of Southampton, naval history, or the history of the English colonisation of New England.

The Mayflower Monument, Southampton UK by Maritime Archaeology on Sketchfab

THE MAYFLOWER MEMORIAL MONUMENT

The Mayflower Memorial is a 50 ft high column that stands on Southampton’s Western Esplanade, looking out across Southampton Water. This is the area from which Mayflower left Southampton on its journey to the New World. The memorial is also known as the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ Memorial’, as Mayflower carried the English puritans, who later became known as ‘pilgrims’, to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620 to set up the first permanent colony in New England.

The monument is Grade II listed and was designed by local architect R. M. Lucas. It was built and erected in 1913 by local stonemasons and builders Garret and Haysom, who also built many other structures in Southampton between 1806-1963.

At the top of the stone stack there are pillars with carved semi-classical heads, which raise a mosaic cupola. A copper model of the Mayflower sits on the very top, which you can take a detailed look at using our interactive 3D viewer.

THE VOYAGE OF MAYFLOWER

Mayflower was at anchor in Southampton on 27 July 1620 where it waited for the ship Speedwell to arrive from Holland. They were in Southampton for nearly two weeks (as Speedwell needed a refit) before setting sail. Unfortunately, having barely cleared the English Channel, Speedwell started to leak and the two ships had to divert to Dartmouth so Speedwell could be repaired. On their second attempt, Mayflower and Speedwell managed to sail 200 miles beyond Lands End, when they had to turn back to Plymouth because of more problems with Speedwell . In early September, less than 156 miles from Southampton, it was decided that Speedwell was too unreliable to tackle the treacherous Atlantic crossing and the passengers who still wished to make the journey crowded onto Mayflower . At 100 ft long and 180 tons, Mayflower was not a large ship and was quite crowded with 30 crew and 102 passengers.

Our 3D interactive viewer includes an intimate and detailed overview of some of the passengers who journeyed to New England, along with further information about Mayflower and the Mayflower Memorial.

Please explore our 3D interactive model. You are very welcome to get in touch if you have any questions about the history of Mayflower , the Mayflower Memorial, or our 3D model.

We would like to thank Friends of the Maritime Archaeology Trust and volunteers from the Southampton community for helping with research and producing the 3D model, which was funded by money from Southampton City Council’s Community Chest Grant.

If you enjoy our Mayflower Memorial interactive 3D model, you may also wish to explore some of our other interactive 3D models . Please follow this link if you would like to find out more about becoming a ‘Friend of the Trust’.

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Mayflower 400: how we brought the pilgrims’ ship to life using VR technology

It’s almost impossible, 400 years later, to imagine the scene in September 1620, when groups of English Puritans took their last look at the land of their birth while descending a few damp, slippery steps in Sutton Pool (today, the Barbican), Plymouth. How they felt while being ferried out to the Mayflower, a cramped, creaking square-rigged merchant ship, moored outside the harbour – and what they thought of the vessel, with its basic facilities and cargo.

But after four centuries, thanks to virtual and augmented reality technologies, for the first time we are able to see what that departure might have been like.

The Virtual Mayflower project has been one of the most challenging we have ever undertaken, seeking credible, historical research and deciding how we can use interactive technologies for a broad range of end users of different ages and backgrounds.

The project took us from a beached wreck near Hastings to the Mayflower II replica in the US. Meetings ranged from demonstrations at the US ambassador’s London residence to visualisation trials on Plymouth Hoe and from the council chambers in Droitwich Spa to Canary Wharf in London’s Docklands. The Virtual Mayflower story spans six years of ambition, elation, disappointment and – ultimately – a respectable degree of success.

We have been involved with numerous Plymouth maritime heritage projects since 2005 – mainly undersea wrecks – exploiting VR to “render the invisible visible”, as we did in the 1990s with projects such as Virtual Stonehenge. The Virtual Mayflower effort was kickstarted 250 miles to the east of Plymouth, on Pett Level Beach near Hastings. The Anne, a warship built for King Charles II’s Royal Navy, was launched in 1678. She was deliberately beached and torched at Pett Level in 1690, during the Battle of Beachy Head, to prevent capture by the French.

There she remained until the storms of 2013 exposed her lower structures . Collaborating with the Hastings Shipwreck Museum , we developed a detailed and explorable VR model of the ship and undertook a world-first demonstration using AR techniques, visualising the ship from above through the cameras of a drone – in effect looking down through the Anne’s masts as she rested in situ on Pett Level’s sands.

Realising a vision

Our success in exploiting VR and AR techniques during the Anne project brought numerous requests to become involved in the 400th anniversary commemorations of the Mayflower’s sailing. The first major development for us was an invitation to visit the Mayflower II in Plymouth, Massachusetts (at that time being prepared for transit to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut for her major refit) and Plimoth Plantation , the original location of the Pilgrims’ first home in the New World.

We were able to use 360-degree spherical panoramic cameras to capture many areas of the ship (including views from the crow’s nest) and were also shown the impressive costume repository held by the plantation. This was to be invaluable during the later reconstruction of the virtual pilgrims and ship’s crew. Also presented was the Mayflower II’s “shallop” – a replica of a small boat that was, in 1620, shipped across the Atlantic in four pieces, reassembled to ferry the early reconnaissance teams to Cape Cod’s peninsula (known today as Provincetown Harbor ), and later used to land the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.

The data collected from the visit, plus a range of 3D assets available online, enabled us to recreate a VR scene featuring both the Mayflower and the smaller unseaworthy Speedwell (ultimately abandoned in Sutton Pool). We then set about developing more detailed versions of the ship and harbour. One of the biggest challenges we faced was how best to represent the passengers and crew of the Mayflower, and the Sutton Pool inhabitants.

In 2017 we acquired a new piece of wearable motion capture (MOCAP) hardware. The Perception Neuron was a flexible “exoskeleton” comprising small Inertial Measurement Units, data from which were transferred to a backpack-worn laptop. We undertook a unique trial of this technology on board one of the Jubilee Sailing Trust’s tall ships, the Lord Nelson, moored at London’s Canary Wharf. Despite appalling weather, the ship’s bosun’s mate, Beth Goss, climbed 34m of the vessel’s main mast, her every movement recorded by the suit and two 360-degree cameras.

But in the final evaluation, we decided that neither this, nor a more conventional optical MOCAP technique, provided us with sufficiently reliable, noise-free human movement data for use with virtual humans (“avatars”). So we approached game designer, Mike Acosta, from Royal Leamington Spa College, to develop the virtual passenger, crew and Sutton Pool inhabitants – with appropriate period clothing – for the VR scenarios.

As well as conducting research into how best to represent the humans of the time, including one of the more important of Pilgrim leaders, Edward Winslow (only one painting of whom exists, in the Pilgrim Museum in Plymouth Massachusetts), we also sourced many historic documents and maps, each providing different views of the Sutton Harbour area.

These, as well as information from books and images by numerous authors and illustrators, enabled us to develop a detailed 3D model of the Sutton Pool area, complete with lighting, mist and other environmental effects. Users can now don VR headsets and explore the harbour before descending the original location of the Mayflower Steps. There, they will get into a small boat that will ferry them out to board the small ship that was to be home to 102 Pilgrims for 66 days in the most abominable of circumstances.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

About the author – Robert Stone

Robert (Bob) Stone holds a Chair in Interactive Multimedia Systems within the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Birmingham, where he is also Director of the  Human Interface Technologies (HIT) Team . He graduated from University College London in 1979 with a BSc in Psychology, and in 1981 with an MSc in Ergonomics. Bob also currently holds the position of Visiting Professor in Simulation Psychology within the University of Plymouth.

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Mayflower II

Along with national treasures such as the statue of liberty and the lincoln memorial, mayflower is an iconic symbol of freedom..

Of the hundreds of ships that made the transatlantic crossing in the 1600s, she is the ship we remember. Three hundred years later, on June 13, 1957, a full-scale reproduction arrived in Plymouth Harbor, Mayflower II .

Since then, Mayflower II has become the majestic centerpiece of historic Plymouth Harbor, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In many ways, America is the product of the events that happened in Plymouth and Native Patuxet over four centuries ago—the choices made, risks taken, and the adaptation of community structures to new civic realities.

Mayflower II tangibly embodies those choices and risks for hundreds of thousands of lifelong learners each year. More than twenty-five million people have stepped aboard her decks to imagine the perils and contemplate the modern impacts of the historic crossing.

Today, Mayflower II is a floating classroom and working vessel. Following her restoration and return to Plymouth in 2020, she was added to the National Register of Historic Places, illuminating that she is a historic ship in her own right.

"Like most people, I was immediately struck by how small the ship seemed - particularly in the 'tween decks, where the passengers were confined. How could 102 people, including three pregnant mothers, have survived more than ten weeks in a space this size?" —Nathaniel Philbrick, "At Sea with the Pilgrims: Writing About the Voyage of the Mayflower, " Plimoth Life, 2007.

Frequently Asked Questions

Mayflower is a square-rigged vessel that is about 25 feet wide and 106 feet long, displacing 236 tons of water. She has four masts, including a mainmast, foremast, mizzen, and sprit, with a total of six sails. You may walk around the main deck, orlop deck, and half deck.

Mayflower is not fully accessible. People with difficulty walking should be aware that there are ramps that can be steep according to the rise and fall of the tides. On the ship, there are also several flights of stairs to climb. However, those unable to board the ship may enjoy a close-up view of Mayflower from the dock, visit the dockside exhibit area, talk to modern crewmembers, and look at photographs of the interior of the ship.

Yes, we encourage you to take photographs or use video cameras for your own use. You need not ask permission of the staff to take pictures of Mayflower . Commercial use of photographs or video is prohibited without permission from our Public Relations office.

No one knows for sure what happened to the original Mayflower . The last record of the ship was an assessment of her value in 1624. After that, she disappeared from maritime records. Several places in England claim to have a piece of the original ship, but there is no historical proof to support these claims.

Mayflower passengers lived on board anywhere from seven to nine months depending on when they joined the voyage and how soon they left the ship for shelter on land.

One of the most notable differences is the large modern staircase between the main deck and the lower decks. (In the 17th century, ladders were used). Electric lights illuminating the dark corners of the lower deck were also not standard in the 1600s! There were other minor modifications made to Mayflower to make sure that she would be more accessible, safe, and comfortable for the visiting public.

Mayflower II : Her Story

Under construction.

A reproduction ship was always part of Harry Hornblower’s vision for Plimoth Patuxet Museums (learn more about his vision here). In 1951 Plimoth Patuxet (then known as Plimoth Plantation) contracted naval architect, William A. Baker, to research and design plans for a ship the size and type of the original Mayflower. At nearly the same time, unbeknownst to Plimoth Patuxet, a similar project was developing in England. Warwick Charlton founded Project Mayflower Ltd. to honor the alliance of friendship forged between the United States and United Kingdom during World War II. Charlton’s team came across an article written by Baker, and after connecting with Plimoth Patuxet, a new partnership was born. Plimoth Patuxet provided Baker’s research and plans to Project Mayflower Ltd. Of course, that is just the start of Mayflower II’ s journey!

[ Above Photo Captions: Photo 1: Generations of shipwrights on Mayflower II’s frame at the J.W. & A. Upham Shipyard; Photo 2: A shipwright works in the hull of Mayflower II . Note the “Mayflower” banner flown between a United States and United Kingdom flag; Photo 3. Shipwrights, community members, dignitaries, and project leaders gather for the keel laying ceremony in July 1955. Note the United Kingdom and American flags tied together above the bean in tribute to the friendship between the two countries the ship exemplified following World War II; Photo 4: A shipwright works on Mayflower II using traditional 17th-century methods and tools. Photo 5: View of Mayflower II’s Main deck and Beak; Photo 6: Mayflower II , nearing completion and being rigged by shipwrights in Brixham. ]

Her Maiden Voyage

Mayflower II set sail from Plymouth, England on April 20, 1957 with a crew of thirty-three men under the command of acclaimed Captain Alan Villiers. As they neared Massachusetts shores, Mayflower II ran into a violent squall. No one aboard had experience with handling a 17th-century vessel in inclement weather. However, Captain Villiers remembered that William Bradford, famed Governor of Plymouth Colony and passenger aboard the original Mayflower during her 1620 voyage, wrote in his manuscript, Of Plimoth Plantation , how Master Christopher Jones steered the original ship to safety during the 1620 voyage by lying ahull. Quickly recalling this note, Villiers and the crew executed the same maneuvers and calmly rode out the storm. On June 13, 1957 Mayflower II arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts to a crowd of 25,000 adoring spectators.

[Above Photo Captions: Photo 1: Stuart Upham, second from rear, hauls a line with fellow Mayflower II crew members in 1957; Photo 2: Mayflower II undersail in the Atlantic Ocean; Photo 3: A selection of images of the crew aboard Mayflower II during her 1957 maiden voyage. Top right, a batch of rolls fresh out of the oven in Mayflower II ’s galley. Top left, crew members demonstrate 17th-century medical procedures with leeches while under sail. Bottom right, Captain Villiers delivers a Sunday service to the crew. Bottom left, a crew member sketches and paints; Photo 4: A selection of images from the 1957 voyage. Top right, crew members dressed in Pilgrim attire on the Main deck. Top left, Captain Villiers, in Pilgrim attire, addresses his crew on the Main deck. Bottom right, a crew member at the ship’s wheel during the day. Bottom left, a crew member at the ship’s wheel at night; Photo 5: The 1957 Mayflower II crew with Captain Villiers; Photo 6: Mayflower II arrives in Plymouth on June 13, 1957 and is greeted by thousands of spectators along the waterfront. ]

Her Triumphant Restoration

“ Mayflower II is a source of inspiration to those in search of new beginnings and the possibility of multicultural cooperation in this nation of immigrants. Upon her return to Plymouth Harbor she once again became a kind of time machine…to a past that only gains in resonance and importance with each passing day.”—Nathaniel Philbrick

After 3+ years of restoration and 3 weeks of sea trials, on August 10, 2020 Mayflower II departed a slip at Mass Maritime Academy headed for home. With great fanfare and a flotilla along the way, the ship nestled back into her berth in Plymouth Harbor later that day.

Following her return, on October 22, 2020 Mayflower II was named to the National Register of Historic Places. She was deemed historically significant for her association with the founding story of the United States and as a full-scale ship that embodies the distinctive characteristics of a 17th-century English merchant vessel. In April 2021, Mayflower II received a Paul & Niki Tsongas Award from Preservation Massachusetts in recognition of the project’s significant work in historic ship restoration, and went on to win Preservation Massachusetts’s People Choice Award the following month.

[All photos in the below gallery are from Mayflower II ’s August 2020 homecoming following her restoration.]

Mayflower II Museum Shop Merch

Shop exclusive Mayflower II merchandise from the Plimoth Patuxet Museum Shops! From jewelry made from wood salvaged during the ship’s restoration to apparel, children’s books, and art, the decks are stocked with a bounty of exclusive goods. Shopping Mayflower II ’s merchandise is a wonderful way to fill her sails and support her educational mission!

Shop exclusive Mayflower II merchandise

A critical delay, cramped quarters, stormy seas, and an arrival 500 miles off course—such were the twists and turns that defined the Mayflower ship’s voyage to America in 1620.  

Despite its less-than-perfect journey, the Mayflower is historically significant in part because of the voyage’s unexpected setbacks. The passengers’ response and resiliency to each obstacle left an indelible mark on American history.

Virtually explore the interior of the Mayflower and learn more about the fateful voyage.

Explore the Mayflower

The Mayflower was built shortly before its purchase in 1608. Experts estimate that the length of the deck was between 80 and 90 feet and that the ship was 24 feet at its widest point.

Click the arrows to explore the inside of the Mayflower, and learn more about life on the merchant ship!

Read the full story.

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The Mayflower

By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 27, 2023 | Original: March 4, 2010

In September 1620, a merchant ship called the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, a port on the southern coast of England. Normally, the Mayflower’s cargo was wine and dry goods, but on this trip the ship carried passengers: 102 of them, all hoping to start a new life on the other side of the Atlantic. Nearly 40 of these passengers were Protestant Separatists—they called themselves “Saints”—who hoped to establish a new church in the so-called New World. Today, we often refer to the colonists who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower as “Pilgrims.”

Pilgrims Before the Mayflower

In 1608, a congregation of disgruntled English Protestants from the village of Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, left England and moved to Leyden, a town in Holland. These “Separatists” did not want to pledge allegiance to the Church of England , which they believed was nearly as corrupt and idolatrous as the Catholic Church it had replaced, any longer. (They were not the same as the Puritans, who had many of the same objections to the English church but wanted to reform it from within.) The Separatists hoped that in Holland, they would be free to worship as they liked

Did you know? The Separatists who founded the Plymouth Colony referred to themselves as “Saints,” not “Pilgrims.” The use of the word “Pilgrim” to describe this group did not become common until the colony’s bicentennial.

In fact, the Separatists, or “Saints,” as they called themselves, did find religious freedom in Holland, but they also found a secular life that was more difficult to navigate than they’d anticipated. For one thing, Dutch craft guilds excluded the migrants, so they were relegated to menial, low-paying jobs. 

Even worse was Holland’s easygoing, cosmopolitan atmosphere, which proved alarmingly seductive to some of the Saints’ children. (These young people were “drawn away,” Separatist leader William Bradford wrote, “by evill [sic] example into extravagance and dangerous courses.”) For the strict, devout Separatists, this was the last straw. They decided to move again, this time to a place without government interference or worldly distraction: the “New World” across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Mayflower Journey

First, the Separatists returned to London to get organized. A prominent merchant agreed to advance the money for their journey. The Virginia Company gave them permission to establish a settlement, or “plantation,” on the East Coast between 38 and 41 degrees north latitude (roughly between the Chesapeake Bay and the mouth of the Hudson River). And the King of England gave them permission to leave the Church of England, “provided they carried themselves peaceably.”

In August 1620, a group of about 40 Saints joined a much larger group of (comparatively) secular colonists—“Strangers,” to the Saints—and set sail from Southampton, England on two merchant ships: the Mayflower and the Speedwell. The Speedwell began to leak almost immediately, however, and the ships headed back to port in Plymouth. The travelers squeezed themselves and their belongings onto the Mayflower, a cargo ship about 80 feet long and 24 feet wide and capable of carrying 180 tons of cargo. The Mayflower set sail once again under the direction of Captain Christopher Jones.

Because of the delay caused by the leaky Speedwell, the Mayflower had to cross the Atlantic at the height of storm season. As a result, the journey was horribly unpleasant. Many of the passengers were so seasick they could scarcely get up, and the waves were so rough that one “Stranger” was swept overboard. (It was “the just hand of God upon him,” Bradford wrote later, for the young sailor had been “a proud and very profane yonge man.”)

How the Mayflower Compact Laid a Foundation for American Democracy

Pilgrims had to find a way to get along with "strangers" on their ship once they landed in the New World.

The Pilgrims’ Miserable Journey Aboard the Mayflower

During their two‑month voyage to America, the Mayflower's passengers faced cramped quarters, rough seas, limited food and numbing cold.

Why the Wampanoag Signed a Peace Treaty with the Mayflower Pilgrims

The treaty that made the first Thanksgiving possible has a dark backstory.

The Mayflower Compact

After sixty-six days, or roughly two miserable months at sea, the ship finally reached the New World. There, the Mayflower’s passengers found an abandoned Indian village and not much else. They also found that they were in the wrong place: Cape Cod was located at 42 degrees north latitude, well north of the Virginia Company’s territory. Technically, the Mayflower colonists had no right to be there at all. 

In order to establish themselves as a legitimate colony (“Plymouth,” named after the English port from which they had departed) under these dubious circumstances, 41 of the Saints and Strangers drafted and signed a document they called the Mayflower Compact . This Compact promised to create a “civil Body Politick” governed by elected officials and “just and equal laws.” It also swore allegiance to the English king. It was the first document to establish self-government in the New World and this early attempt at democracy set the stage for future colonists seeking independence from the British .

The First Thanksgiving

The colonists spent the first winter living onboard the Mayflower. Only 53 passengers and half the crew survived. Women were particularly hard hit; of the 19 women who had boarded the Mayflower, only five survived the cold New England winter, confined to the ship where disease and cold were rampant. The Mayflower sailed back to England in April 1621, and once the group moved ashore, the colonists faced even more challenges.

During their first winter in America, more than half of the Plymouth colonists died from malnutrition, disease and exposure to the harsh New England weather. In fact, without the help of the area’s native people, it is likely that none of the colonists would have survived. An English-speaking Abenaki named Samoset helped the colonists form an alliance with the local Wampanoags, who taught them how to hunt local animals, gather shellfish and grow corn, beans and squash. 

At the end of the next summer, the Plymouth colonists celebrated their first successful harvest with a three-day festival of thanksgiving. We still commemorate this feast and remember it as the first Thanksgiving , though it did not occur on the fourth Thursday in November like it does today, but sometime between late September and mid November 1621. The colonists were outnumbered two to one by their guests . Attendee Edward Winslow noted there were “many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men.”

Plymouth Colony

Eventually, the Plymouth colonists were absorbed into the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. Still, the Mayflower Saints and their descendants remained convinced that they alone had been specially chosen by God to act as a beacon for Christians around the world. “As one small candle may light a thousand,” Bradford wrote, “so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sort to our whole nation.”

Today, visitors wishing to see Plymouth Colony as it appeared during the time of the Mayflower can witness reenactments of the first Thanksgiving and more at Plymouth Plantation.

Mayflower Descendants

There are an estimated 10 million living Americans and 35 million people around the world who are descended from the original passengers on the Mayflower like Myles Standish, John Alden and William Bradford. include Humphrey Bogart, Julia Child, Norman Rockwell, and presidents John Adams , James Garfield and Zachary Taylor .

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General Society of Mayflower Descendants

The mayflower meetinghouse, future updates and plans, get expert help, from the mayflower society's genealogy team, new "heirloom" membership certificates, available to donors of the mayflower meetinghouse.

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants

How to Join

Find out more details about joining The Mayflower Society

Mayflower Lineage Match

Find out how much of your Mayflower lineage has been previously verified

Member Benefits

Learn more about why descendants should consider joining 

Virtual Lecture Series

A series of online presentations available live and recorded

Our Mission

The General Society of Mayflower Descendants is committed to research on the lineal descent of the Mayflower Pilgrims and education about the Pilgrims who traveled aboard the  Mayflower  in 1620. The Society provides education and understanding of why the Mayflower Pilgrims were important, how they shaped western civilization, and what their 1620 voyage means today and its impact on the world.

In 1620, a brave group of 102 men, women, and children sailed across the Atlantic on the Mayflower in search of a better life. 

In 1897, the general society of mayflower descendants was established to pay homage to the pilgrims through preservation and education., the mayflower society now has a network of more than 54 member societies across the world. our members have formed lifelong bonds together while honoring the sacred legacy of our ancestors., governor general lisa pennington's welcome message, the mayflower society depends on the generosity and support of our members and friends around the world to carry out our mission..