Meeting Notes - July 2015
Professor Bob Stone leads the Human Interface Technologies (HITs) team at the University of Birmingham and came to the Society to tell us about their work on ‘Virtual Reality Technologies for Maritime Heritage’.
He began by explaining how simple Virtual Reality (VR) is… using a Blue Peter analogy of toilet rolls and sticky-back plastic. Blue Peter would make a model of a rocket, for example, by taking a toilet roll, covering it with paper and drawing on the windows, rockets etc.
For a VR model, you visit that great resource, the interweb, where you can now purchase 3-D framework computer images or models of pretty much anything. Taking this framework model as your toilet roll and a photograph of the actual thing you want to re-create in VR as your piece of paper to wrap around the model, you can create a 3-D model on a computer… By creating VR models of landscapes, buildings etc to place your object in, you have created a VR world, that you can then wander around by wearing special goggles that show the image in 3-D and using a handheld control from a games console!
Augmented Reality (AR) is simply when you take this computer model and overlay it on actual film of a real scene, for example taking modern aerial film of a German dam and overlaying a 3-D model of a Lancaster bomber flying in with a Barnes Wallis bomb attached underneath – instantly you have an example of ‘Augmented Reality’!
With Bob’s team able to create such wonders, the opportunities for either re-creating historical scenes long since lost in time, or enabling people to view scenes that are difficult to access, are endless. Bob then took us through a series of challenges he had been presented with that relates to our maritime heritage…
HMS Scylla was an ex-Royal Navy frigate that was deliberately scuttled in Whitsand Bay in Cornwall in March 2004 to create an artificial reef, for marine life and to provide an interesting scene for divers. Bob’s team used underwater photographs of the wreck to create a 3-D model that allows school children and visitors to the local aquarium to ‘dive down to and swim around’ the wreck without even getting wet!
In a change of tack, Bob then talked about patient recovery and rehabilitation. An American study showed patients in a hospital bed with a view of trees and countryside recovered faster than patients in a bed with a view of a brick wall. Could VR provide patients with a ‘view’? I am reminded of the scene in the Director’s Cut of the film Aliens, when Sigourney Weaver’s character is seated on a bench, in an idyllic wood, sunlight filtering through the trees, bird song etc. A doctor approaches, she switches off the screen and you realise she is in a hospital… how sci-fi often predicts the future…
During Bob’s research into this idea of a VR world for patients, he came across a proposal from 1909 to constructa huge passenger and commercial port within Wembury Bay in South Devon, to rival theestablished and growing docks at Liverpool and Southampton. The port was to comprisebreakwaters extending far out into the Bay, four jetties, dry docks and even a railwayterminus. In the end, the House of Lords rejected the scheme which is fortunate as, today,Wembury Bay is part of the National Trust and is classified as one of South Devon’s Areas ofOutstanding Natural Beauty. Bob has, however, used Virtual and Augmented Reality techniques to bring the original proposal “to life”, and to help end users understand the impact thedock would have had on the area, had the proposal been accepted. It would also provide an interesting VR world for patients to explore from their hospital beds.
With the docks constructed, Bob’s team needed ships to fill it. Naturally their first arrival was RMS Titanic, which helped to show the enormous scale of the original proposals!
HMS Amethyst, of Yangtse Incident fame, was sadly broken up for scrap at Plymouth, but reunions of those who served on her continue to this day, so Bob created a VR model of the ship and put it in Wembury Harbour for a recent reunion!
Other vessels that now populate the Wembury Harbour ‘Hall of Fame’ include the Holland 1, one of the first Royal Navy submarines, that sank in 1913 as it was being towed to the breakers yard and only found by divers in 1981. There is also a model of the Maria, potentially the world’s first ‘submarine’ experiment from 1774.
The Maria was a 31-foot, 50-ton converted wooden sloop, purchased for £340. She was converted to house a wooden-beamed chamber measuring some 12ft by 9ft by 8ft, containingaround “75 hogsheads” of air (24.5m3, providing 25 tons of buoyancy and allegedly sufficient for24 hours life support).
A topside entry hatch allowed the vessel’s only occupant, a shipwright by the name of John
Day, access to the vessel. A system of counterbalance and chains enabled him to close the
hatch and render the chamber watertight. The Maria’s buoyancy was counteracted by filling theinterior with (initially) 10 tons of limestone (although another 20 tons of rocks from local quarrieshad to be added on the day of the dive) and flooding the fore and aft spaces via sluice pipes. To allow the Maria to surface after the experiment, netted groups of 21-ton rocks were to bereleased by undoing (and quickly plugging!) bolts within the chamber.
The Maria was towed from Plymouth’s Sutton Harbour to Firestone Bay on June 20th 1774. Dayboarded the Maria carrying a hammock, a watch, a candle, a bottle of water and some biscuits.
The Maria “submerged” stern first and her disappearance was followed 15 minutes later by
bubbles on the surface, indicative of the escape of a considerable amount of air from an
underwater source. After 3 days of effort by 200 dockyard workers, the salvage operation was
abandoned. Clearly the depth at the point chosen was so deep that the water pressure as the Maria descended simply crushed the wooden chamber…
Next to arrive at Wembury docks was the Anne, a 70-gun third rate ship of the line, built by Phineas Pett at Chatham Dockyardas part of a late 17th century restoration of King Charles II’s Royal Navy, overseen by SamuelPepys. Launched in 1678, the Anne was beached twelve years later during the Battle ofBeachy Head. Under the command of John Tyrrell, the vessel was deliberately torched at PettLevel near Hastings to prevent her from being captured by the French. Over the years, theAnne has occasionally become visible as the sands covering the remains of the wreck shift, so Bob’s team used a drone to circle the exposed wreck, taking photographs. 2 French students (ironically) spent 12 weeks building a highly detailed 3-D model of the Anne. She is now berthed at Wembury Harbour but Augmented Reality was used to also show the ship being beached at precisely the correct spot on Pett Level.
This work caught the attention of the Shipwrecks & History In Plymouth Sound project (SHIPS) who asked Bob to model the SS James Eagan Layne, a US Liberty ship, one of many hundreds of mass-producedcargo vessels built during World War II to provide the Allies with vital supplies.
After being torpedoed by U-399 off the Eddystone Reef in March 1945, the Eagan Layne was
taken under tow by two local tugs and finally sank without loss of life in Whitsand Bay near
Plymouth, just 540m east of the wreck of HMS Scylla. Using detailed sonar data, Bob created an image of the current state of the vessel on the seabed. He also created a 3-D model of the ship in its original condition. Armed with the two versions, Bob aims to simulate the Eagan Layne’s final moments and to simulate her deterioration,ready for demonstration at the 70th anniversary (2015) of her sinking (part of the Liberty 70Project).
In 2014 the HIT Team was involved in a unique maritime heritage project, part of which involves thevirtual recreation of one of Britain’s earliest submarines – a vessel and its crew that, sadly, metan untimely end 100 years ago off the Cornish coast. On 16 January 1914, just a few monthsbefore the beginning of World War I, HMS A7, one of the first submarines designed in Britainfor the Royal Navy, was taking part in simulated torpedo attacks against her Depot Ship HMSOnyx and the maintenance/supply tender HMS Pygmy in Whitsand Bay to the west ofPlymouth. Built by Vickers Sons and Maxim Ltd at Barrow-in Furness and launched in 1905,the A7 was a coastal patrol submarine powered by a single shaft/single screw, 16-cylinder, 600horsepower Wolseley petrol engine whilst on the surface and a 150 horsepower electric motorwhilst submerged.
Just after 11:00 on 16 January, 1914, and commanded by Lt. Gilbert Welman, the A7 began
her simulated attack on the Pigmy. However, after diving, nothing more was seen of the boat.
Over an hour after the exercise started, crewmembers of the Pigmy saw bubbles on the
surface, suggesting that the submarine was attempting to blow water from her ballast tanks in
an attempt to rise (the lack of adequate reserve buoyancy was noted as one of the A class’s
major design shortcomings). The location was marked with a buoy before the Pigmy returned
to Devonport to report the incident. Unfortunately, there was only enough air in the submarinefor six hours and, tragically, all 11 crewmembers perished. Despite numerous salvageattempts over the following month, the A7 refused to move and so it was decided the leave herwhere she lay, in about 135ft of water. The reason for the A7’s demise has eluded maritime and naval historians for acentury. It is still not understood what problems the vessel experienced during her final diveand attack run. Even more baffling is the fact that, when finally reached by divers six days afterher loss, she was discovered on the seabed at an unusual bow-up angle of around 30° with herstern embedded in over 20ft of soft clay.
The HIT Team’s task was to recreate the A7 and her wreck siteas a Virtual Reality scenario with educational content. The history of the vessel and its loss hasreceived scant attention over the years, both in historical and educational records, locally andnationally. The MoD granted a rare divelicence to the A7 team in May 2014 and, following a number of dives in the summer of thatyear, a final report on the project was produced.
The team’s view was that the A7 descended too sharply, thus going too deep and close to the seabed, which meant when she turned upwards to ascend, her propellers at the back actually hit the clay seabed and, because they were spinning, the propellers dug themselves into the clay seabed and stuck fast…
The HIT team’s latest project is to recreate the Glaucus. In September 1965, two divers from the British Sub-Aqua Club (Bournemouth Branch), ColinIrwin and John Heath, spent a week living within a 2-ton, 3.7m long and 2.1m diameter cylindercalled Glaucus at a depth of 10.7m (35ft), just off the Plymouth Breakwater. One of the aimsof this project was to demonstrate that living in underwater habitats could be achieved on amuch smaller budget than that being expended at the time by, for example, Jacques Cousteau’sConshelf Project team. The Glaucus cylinder was supported by a set of legs, themselvesattached to a substantial ballast tray. Access to the habitat was via a small open hatch whichenabled other divers to deliver food and supplies. Air was provided by a series of onboard airtanks (a semi-closed circuit – Glaucus was the first subsea habitat to demonstrate this), withCO2 scrubbing trays mounted within the structure.
The project was committed to a short film by British Pathé which is still available today
( Today, despite being recovered and
temporarily relocated to Fort Bovisand, the deteriorating remains of the Glaucus lie 12 metresdown on the seabed of Plymouth Sound, just a few metres from the Breakwater Fort – a sadend for an important piece of underwater history.
The VR project is recreating a “Glaucus experience” by allowing users to “dive” down to a 3D recreation of the habitat and to explore itscramped interior. Relevant information and historical details are being provided Colin Irwin, who, as well as spending a week within the habitat in 1965, was theoriginal designer of the Glaucus. An interview was conducted with Colin in September 2013,which generated a considerable amount of detail and narrative content for future educationalprojects planned for the Virtual Glaucus demonstrator.
Bob then allowed members who were brave enough to have a go on the Virtual Reality model of Wembury Harbour, ‘walking’ around the dockside and visited the Anne!
An excellent talk, opening up a whole new world to the Society – cutting edge technology meets 18th, 19th and 20th century naval history!!