Italian Line: A fold-out (20" by 24") deck plan for the M/S PHILIPPINES, the Manila time-warp hotel that was once the sleek AUGUSTUS.

In the early 1950s the AUGUSTUS provided design cues for the ANDREA DORIA and other liners. She was sold off in 1976 and ended up as a hotel ship in Manila. And there was sat, decade after decade, sometimes open to the public, and often not. Peter Knego reports that her gorgeous mid-century interiors were mostly intact.

This story should have ended with the ship towed back to Italy to become a monument to that country's glorious maritime heritage. Instead, she went to the breakers in 2012. The injustice of it all!

This plan is lifted directly from the Italian Line. Even the English and Italian labels remain although the main public rooms have been renamed. All the cabins, both large and small, remain.

Also included are color photos. There is a view at sea with "Manila Floating Hotel & Restaurant airbrushed onto the hull. Interior views show the Barrio Fiesta Ballroom (ex-First Class Lounge), Theater-Chapel (ex-First Class Ballroom), Luzon Saloon (ex-First Class Dining Room), Seaview Coffee Shop (ex-Cabin Class Smoke Room), Visayas Saloon (ex-Cabin Class Dining Room), Mindanao Dining Room (ex-Tourist Class Restaurant), Rajah Bar (ex-First Class Cocktail Lounge), Sampaguita Smoke Lounge (ex-Cabin Class Lounge), plus views of the swimming pool and Promenade Deck. The carpets are 1990s nasty but the furniture is all the original stuff.

Very good condition.