ERAS Update

Yes, the open chest screen is deliberately different when there are no bodyguards, because you have nobody in your vicinity to share the items with.  If you have bodyguards, you can directly place the chest item into the bodyguard's inventory, but if nobody is there, you can only take it yourself.

For the spyglass, load your saved game, go to the "esc" key game menu, select "Options" then change the first option "Realistic Spyglass" to "Off", click OK, then save your game.  You should then be able to see the enemy ship elements, if your spyglass item has those capabilities.