An exceptionally rare turbine order telegraph by A. Robinson & Co., Liverpool & Glasgow, dated 1912, believed by vending family to have originated from a White Star Lines’ RMS Aquitania.

I bought this incredible telegraph from a family whose Liner loving paternal Grandfather had always claimed he bought it from a collection of marine spares put aside at the shipbreaker in Faslane in the late 50’s, where the Aquitania was scrapped. Apart from this verbal provenance there are several pointers that heavily suggest it’s the truth.

• Stamped as being made in 1912, being supplied to a ship being fitted out in 1913/14 fits perfectly. 
• Of the very short list of ships that had four turbines that were independently controlled, Aquitania was the only one to use Robinson & Co. Telegraph equipment.
• I bought the telegraph along with a very special Alfred Graham telephone unit with adjustable ‘donkey ears’, the same as supplied to the Titanic and the other handful of major White Star & Cunard liners of the time. Photographs of the identical unit along with Robinsons telegraph equipment can be seen in archive photographs of the Aquitania.

I am very happy to put our name to this being from the Aquitania although without cast-iron written provenance from the shipbreaker of the time or archive evidence, of which we are currently trying to pursue from the Liverpool Maritime Museum archives, I appreciate that we cannot price it quite as such. Our asking price, therefore, is in between its intrinsic and historical value. 

If you would like to talk through this piece please contact us and ask for Mark Jameson.