Click here to read story from beginning
Story so far: Grandma Cecile was on her way to visit her relatives back in her home village of Nieder-Mohrau, Czechoslavkia. She had crossed the country by train, from Oregon on the Pacific coast to New York on the Atlantic coast. The Europa, a ship with the North German Lloyd ship line, was carrying her across the Atlantic.
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One of the more fascinating items in Grandma's collection, for me at least, was a blueprint of the "passenger accommodations" of the ship. It is a large piece of paper, 40 inches by 52 inches. It has been folded up for almost 80 years, so it is a bit fragile and bent and torn in a few places, but still quite legible. 
Mostly folded - outside title & math notes
On the outside, next to the identification are some calculations and some handwriting in German.
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| Close view of the writing |
As usual, I had to turn to my friend Al Haunold to help me with the translation.
The calculations at the top convert temperature from Centigrade to Fahrenheit. On the top,written down, it says 37 = Normal, the normal body temperature in Celsius(Centigrade). Then long-hand calculations resulting in 98.7, only 0.01 above normal in Fahrenheit (98.6). In other words, Grandma was fine!
The handwriting below that says essentially:
Zilly's fever on the 6th day after her arrival in Nieder-Mohrau
Nothing indicates who the writer was. "Zilly" was a nickname for Grandma Cecile by her siblings, so it must have been one of them. The word "fever" might have been a way of saying "body temperature". It does suggest that perhaps Grandma did not feel well after arriving and was concerned that she had a fever. If that was the case, she must have just been suffering from anxiety.
Looking at the ship plans
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| The unfolded blueprint, on a rug |
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| Key to the blueprint |
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| Title on the inside |
The key includes the abbreviations for beds of various sorts, wardrobes (closet), showers, various tables, mirrors, washstands (sinks) and deluxe suites.
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| Water and fresh air in the rooms! |
Considering they added the information that all rooms had hot and cold running water and fresh air, that must have been an innovation!
Looking closer at the image with the statement about water and air, some of the rooms have red numbers in them, others have 1st Eng., 2nd Eng., 3rd Eng., etc. Those must have been some of the ship officers' rooms. The red numbered rooms would have been for passengers. There is also an area marked "Shooting Range", for those wanting to practice their target shooting at sea. This particular section is from the Upper Promenade Deck.
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| C Deck - the section with 4 to a room |
In the "C deck" image, you can see the configuration of the rooms that held 4 passengers. Not all in this section did, but Grandma Cecile's room had to have been one of the rooms that shows an AB & EF combination of beds.
Sun & Upper Promenade Decks
The Sun Deck image shows all the games you could play up on top of the ship.There were lots of places to play shuffleboard, something that looked like tether ball called "Lloyd Spiral Ball Game", ring tennis, a "ring game", golf, deck billiards, a "Bull's Head Game", "Mouse Trap Game", squash tennis and a ping pong table. I wonder if Grandma ever gave any of them a try?
To see any image, just click on one and you can scroll through all.
If the decks are shown in order of the arrangement on the ship, the Sun Deck was on top. Then came the Upper Promenade Deck and the Main Promenade Decks. Below them were the A-, B-, C-, D- and E- Decks. The passengers had a total of eight decks at their disposal.
The Sun Deck had the games previously mentioned. It also contained a restaurant with a grand piano, open space - presumably for sitting in the sun, lifeboats, the captains quarters and the pilot house.
The Upper Promenade Deck had rooms at both ends for the officers, a few passenger cabins, a telephone room and office, and a sitting area for passengers. A bar with the Palm Court, 2 social halls, a writing room, library and ball room with a stage and grand piano were all found on the Main Promenade deck. A kindergarten, flower shop, candy store/ "sweet shop" and an art exhibition room were also found on the Main Promenade.
The A-Deck held deluxe suites, other large cabins, bathrooms for ladies and gentlemen, some with bath tubs, others just with toilets and sinks. The Smoking Room was there and next to it the Ladies Room. Perhaps the ladies were not allowed in the Smoking Room?
B-Deck had more Deluxe Suites, but not as many as A-Deck. B- also had more large cabins, a gymnasium, the Information and Ticket Office, the Pursers Office and the Baggage Office.
C-Deck had many passenger cabins, definitely smaller rooms than those on A- & B-Decks. Those rooms that had 4 berths were at the stern end. C-Deck also had the Chief Steward's Office, more of the toilet and bath rooms and vestibules that have general seating areas. There was a barber shop for the gentlemen and a salon for ladies hair dressing, but not just one. There were two of each, one for second class and another for first class. The swimming pool, another gym and a room for medical and electric baths (whirlpools?) were located on C-Deck.
D-Deck consisted of a much smaller area, containing a dining saloon and general dining room. D- also had a small dining room for children and a dining room for maids and valets. E-Deck was larger than D- and had a large general dining area.
All of the decks were connected by staircases and elevators. There were many places for Grandma Cecile to explore. I wonder if she did?
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Story to be continued......
To read Post "29 - More of the Europa Blueprint Click here
