This achromatic telescope was made by the German firm of Voigtlander & Sohn. It is an Officer of the Watch telescope, used on board ship for making general observations. The barrel is covered with pigskin and the single draw tube and fittings are of chromed brass. There is a sliding sunshade and a pivot on the eyepiece that allows a tinted lens to be used in bright conditions.

The telescope was once owned by one of the few survivors of the German cruiser 'Scharnhorst', which was sunk by two British battlecruisers off the Falkland Islands just four months after the outbreak of the First World War, 1914-18.