Port & Starboard
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A listener asked how 'port' and 'starboard' came into nautical
use instead of just saying left and right.
At one point in naval history, the steering apparatus was on
the right side of the boat. When the steersman docked the vessel, he had to
maneuver the left side toward the pier. If he used the right side, he would
have damaged the rudder by jamming it against the pier. So the left side was
used to load and unload cargo in port. It was the port side.
Starboard had nothing to do with stars; it didn’t refer to
celestial navigation. Star was an early variation of steer. The right side was
the steering side because that’s where the rudder was located in early Germanic
boats. It was connected to the steer board.
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