NavList:

Wolfgang Koberer you wrote: “I don't want to spoil the fun of retro-engineering astronavigation in airships through perusing tables for maximum usable heights etc., but the truth is: there was no astronavigation on airships - at least not on the big German pre-WWI airships that crossed the Atlantic. One could possibly see the horizon, but there was this big bulky superstructure overhead which blocked the view to the sky, alas. No way to take a noon sight for instance.”

Wollfgang
I think you meant to write pre WW2.  The first E-W airship crossing of the Atlantic was by His Majesty's Airship R34, which flew from East Fortune, Scotland to New York between 2^nd and 6^th July 1919, only a couple of weeks after Alcock and Browne’s W-E Vickers Vimy flight on 14^th June 1919.  The R34 returned W-E from New York to Pulham Norfolk between 10^th and 13^th July 1919.

They did take both types of sextants.  They did shoot celestial.  They did use cloud horizons.  They did shoot noon sights, and they also climbed out through the top of the airship occasionally to do so.  They also found a stowaway, a kitten, had carrier pigeons, and a comic who used the chief officer’s toothbrush to stir the mustard at lunchtime.  The crew sound like a fine bunch of chaps.  You can read all this in Air Commodore E. M. Maitland’s* fine little book ‘The Log of H.M.A. R34 Journey to America and Back’ available from Kindle for £7.91GBP.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NG088H8

You can’t copy and paste Kindle, so I’ve photographed a few of the relevant pages below. 

Frank.  You'll note that the instruments and books list bears out what you were saying about room for the kitchhen sink.  DaveP

* On 24 August 1921 Maitland was killed when the R38 airship in which he was a passenger suffered structural failure and broke up in mid-air over the Humber.^[6] He was buried at Western Cemetery in Hull.

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