When the RMS Titanic set sail on April 10, 1912, a last-minute leadership shakeup inadvertently sealed its fate. White Star Line appointed Henry Wilde as Chief Officer, displacing original Chief Officer William Murdoch to First Officer and Charles Lightoller to Second Officer. This reshuffle left original Second Officer David Blair without a spot on the maiden voyage.
In his hasty departure from the ship at Southampton, Blair forgot to hand over a small brass key. That key unlocked a storage locker containing the crow's nest binoculars. As a result, lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee were forced to rely solely on their naked eyes to scan the pitch-black, unusually calm Atlantic ocean.
On the night of April 14, Fleet spotted the iceberg directly in the ship's path, but by then it was too late. During the subsequent inquiry, Fleet testified that if they had possessed binoculars, they would have seen the obstacle early enough to maneuver out of harm's way. While modern historians debate whether binoculars would have ultimately saved the ship under such flat, moonless conditions, the missing key remains one of history's most tragic administrative oversights.
David Blair kept the key as a painful keepsake for the rest of his life, and in 2007, it was sold at an auction for over £90,000.