Lookouts have telescopes?

Pretty good thread!

"Watch glasses" weren't issued to ships, they were one of the things checked before going in for the dreaded LT exam in the Royal Navy anyway. From what I understand, those were brutal oral exams in front of "salty" old sea Captains and Admirals and sometimes lasted upwards of 8 hours!!!! In the military today we call them "seabag" inspections. Basically your officer or chief inspected your uniforms and items onboard to ensure that you had all the necesary items before sailing or going ashore to be transferred to another unit.

One of the improved things we use today is the Night Vision Goggles or NVG's. A cool feature of these is that light, any light, is visible at ranges far exceeding the radar well over the horizon. I once spotted a "loom of light" (this is how we reported it on look out) at around 34 miles from the target. The radar could not see it.  Needless to say we did our best interception work on the drug runners at night.

Lastly, the higher you get on a ship, the farther you can see. We used to have a calculation for that, but I have long since forgotten it. Something like one more mile of distance every 14 feet up you got or something weird like that. Although, with billowing white sails, it must have been a real pain in the bilge to see some of those ships on a cloud background!

-Todd

I stood lookout watches when I was in the Navy and we regularly utilized binoculars. We used 7x50s and the ship's big eyes (large, mounted binococulars). Lookouts on the ships I was stationed on, many times, would spot small objects even before the ship's radar would. The lookouts were required to use their binoculars to check changes in signal flags on other vessels as well. The bridge team would also routinely scan with binoculars. The inport quarterdeck watch had a telescope that was used to check out signal flags and the status of approaching gigs and barges to determine who might be onboard in order to render proper honors to ranking officers prior to them boarding the ship.

I'll just add that a special type of telescope, called a "night glass" (I believe) was available in the late 18th and into the 19th Centuries.

I'm not sure how it worked, but it showed the image upside down to the viewer!

Regards,

As a Green Grunt, I didn't have much to do with binoculars (except for calls for fire) - however I had an Uncle who was in the Navy in WW II and a good friend who served on destroyers during  the Vietnam unpleasentness.  From what I could learn from them,  the Mk I eyeball was the primary device used when on duty as a lookout - spot with the eye and identify with the binos.  I do remember one of them saying that they had been trained to use the binoculars when scanning the horizon, as often a small object would (such as the tip of a mast) could be seen with them before it could be seen with the naked eye.  I assume it was a case of knowing what to use, and when.

All that was mentioned is true.  For one, telescopes were expensive and not entrusted to the regular seaman and second, it is far easier to scan the horizon with the naked eye and are able to pick out things like reflections of a sail, or wake movements that might show how the wind is acting or where shallows or a reef that might be hiding under the surface.  Even at night, a good watch could detect irregular waves or another sail at a good distance by seeing reflections.

If something was discovered, the watch would call on the OOD, or Watch Officer, who in turn would send an officer up to verify the account with his glass and then make the decision to take approriate action.  This procedure is still followed in maritme operations today.

I hunt a lot, and have sailed in a schooner on the open ocean, and can attest that an eyeglass is only good to see something up close that you have already spotted but is useless for actually looking for something  within a vast area. 

Scott

I don't know what they did in the days of sail but all the assumptions above seem right to me. In the merchant marine in modern times lookouts rarely have binoculars. I guess that's maybe not the case in the Navy. The trouble with telescopes, and binoculars to a lesser extent, is the field of view is pretty narrow. Any good pair of eyes should be able to see an object as large as a ship as soon as it clears the horizon in clear weather. Once you see it, then you can examine it with optics.

I can't recall having read any detailed discussion of this, but I think you got it right.  I believe such things as telescopes and sextants were generally the private property of the officers or warrant officers.  It does seem a little odd that the Royal Navy didn't issue navigational instruments to ships, but I have the impression that it didn't start doing so until a good bit later than the period we're talking about here.

It's also worth remembering that, though it certainly would be an improvement over the naked eye, the eighteenth- or early-nineteenth-century telescope was pretty crude by modern standards.  I suspect the general attitude was that a pair of young, sharp eyes at the masthead would be almost as useful.

Interesting question.  I'll see if I can find out something more about it.