There is ordinary language, “I indirectly see the ship through my telescope and I directly see the ship in front of me”.

There is philosophical language, “I directly perceive phenomenal experiences in my mind enabling me to indirectly infer that there is a ship in the world.”

Things go wrong when in philosophical language a word is used having an ordinary language meaning.

Light is of the mind-independent world; it is absorbed by the eyes; and therefore each of us has direct contact with the “mind-independent world”. Since this contact is direct, so is access to the “mind-independent world”, and there is zero room in space and time for any intermediary. — NOS4A2

I am in a room with the door closed, I hear a sound. I infer that the sound came from outside the room. I may be wrong, but I infer it.

In this case, is it the correct use of language to say “I have direct contact with what is outside the room”?

There is ordinary language, “I indirectly see the ship through my telescope — RussellA

Surely what you are seeing is the image of the ship via telescope, not the ship itself?

Surely what you are seeing is the image of the ship via telescope, not the ship itself? — Corvus

There is ordinary language and philosophical language.

In ordinary language, when looking at a ship in front of them, both the Direct and Indirect Realist could say “I am directly looking at the ship”. When looking at the ship through a telescope, both the Direct and Indirect Realist could say “I am indirectly looking at the ship in front of me”

However, in philosophical language, when looking at a ship in front of them, the Direct Realist could say “I am directly looking at the ship” and the Indirect Realist could say “I am indirectly looking at the ship”. When looking through a telescope, the Direct Realist could say “I am indirectly looking at the ship” and the Indirect Realist could say “I am directly looking at an image of the ship”

It gets difficult when ordinary and philosophical language are mixed up.