From Strategy Page…..

Since navigation was often uncertain when Zeppelins were flying above clouds, some were equipped with an observation basket that could be lowered through the cloud layers. In that way one or two men in the basket would have a good view of the earth’s surface. From this position, they could keep the ship informed by telephone of the landmarks below, helping it navigate to and from its target.

Of course this was particularly hazardous, as the men were without parachutes in a flimsy basket dangling at the end of a 750 meter tether, in freezing cold. Yet there never seems to have been a shortage of volunteers for this duty. In part this was due to the very high morale of the airshipmen. But volunteers also gained a privilege denied to everyone else on the ship; the little basket dangling at the end of nearly a half-mile of cable was the only place on the airship where a man was allowed to have a cigarette.