Saturday, January 12, 2019

White Star Line Binoculars

On board the RMS Titanic, there were multiple pairs of binoculars mainly used by officers and lookouts.  Contrary to what some may believe, they didn't primarily use binoculars for viewing things around them because binoculars limited their field of vision to specific areas.  When binoculars were used, they were mainly used when something was sighted far away and they needed to get a better look at it.  Before the Titanic set sail, the binoculars for the lookouts were in a locker and David Blair who was originally was going to be 2nd officer and due to a shuffle left the ship in Southampton accidentally left the ship with the keys to that locker.  So for the voyage, they were left with no access to them.  Following the Titanic disaster, this was a heavily criticized as being one of the contributing factors of the disaster.  Since then, historians have debated on whether or not they really would have made a difference and today, many believe they would not have changed the outcome.  In the debris field, a pair of binoculars were found and recovered from the wreck site.  

These binoculars were used by the 1st officer of the SS Runic which was a White Star Line steamer that sailed from 1900 until 1940 when she was torpedoed and sunk.  On top of the White Star Line connection, the binoculars were made by JW Ray & Co. which was the company that made and supplied the engine telegraphs for the RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic.  






2 comments:

  1. these binoculars had three lenses, and revolved using the button at the side. one for marine one for field and one for sport, each with different focal length. the barrels would have been covered with brown leather,

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