Monday, September 7, 2015

port / starboard

Which one is which, and why have this confusion? In answering, the thing we are shown does not match the description. All descriptions so far say the same thing, that for any observer the directions are unambiguous, and they all fail to state explicitly where the observer is positioned, and it is important. They are showing us that the observer is not onboard while the descriptions assume the reader understands the observer that makes all this unambiguous is onboard.

Go ahead and Google it if you like, this is what is shown you. The photo is titled "port / starboard," exactly what I searched.


I'm not trying to be difficult, I'm trying to understand, see, I just came from Jupiter and your ways are strange and unfamiliar to me, your explanations addle the alien mind. You show me this picture and tell me this:
Since port and starboard never change, they are unambiguous references that are independent of a mariner’s orientation, and, thus, mariners use these nautical terms instead of left and right to avoid confusion. When looking forward, toward the bow of a ship, port and starboard refer to the left and right sides, respectively.
Gotcha. I am the mariner. I'm on the dock waiting for this ship and looking forward straight at it, forward toward the bow, right at the bow, Let's see, left is port, and right is starboard.  Wikipedia says the same thing and omits the same thing. They assume you know the guy is on the boat and not on the dock
Port and starboard are nautical terms for left and right, respectively. Port is the left-hand side of or direction from a vessel, facing forward. Starboard is the right-hand side, facing forward. Since port and starboard never change, they are unambiguous references that are not relative to the observer
Wikipedia shows a boat's steering oar that explains how this whole thing started but is not helpful in understanding why simple right / left must be replaced. What ambiguity are they talking about, the ambiguity they engage in with  their explanation that omits the mariner is on the boat and not on the dock?


You need to say, "when you're on the boat" and you need to show viewpoint on the boat. It's not hard. Here. Like this. This took one minute and only 95k. 

Starboard VS Port



19 comments:

Methadras said...

The way I always remember Port (left) and Starboard (right) was that Port has the same number of letters as Port, four. So from where ever I was on the boat, whenever someone said Port, it was always to the left and the forward direction of the boat. Its the direction that matters, but that's how I remembered it.

ricpic said...

Port from the dock (looking at the incoming vessel) has to be the opposite of Port from the deck of the vessel. It would make no sense if Port and Starboard remained constant regardless of the position of the observer.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If you're really from Jupiter is only normal that you would be a little foggy in the ways of earthlings 🚢⛵️🚤

edutcher said...

Be glad it isn't starboard and larboard any more.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Presumably the sailor knows where the bow of the boat is, facing that port is left and starboard is right. Like Methadras said...

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

From Wikipedia:

Port and starboard are nautical terms for left and right, respectively. Port is the left-hand side of or direction from a vessel, facing forward. Starboard is the right-hand side, facing forward. Since port and starboard never change, they are unambiguous references that are not relative to the observer.[2]

The term starboard derives from the Old English steorbord, meaning the side on which the ship is steered. Before ships had rudders on their centrelines, they were steered with a steering oar at the stern of the ship and, because more people are right-handed, on the right-hand side of it. The term is cognate with the Old Norse stýri (rudder) and borð (side of a ship). Since the steering oar was on the right side of the boat, it would tie up at wharf on the other side. Hence the left side was called port.

Formerly larboard was used instead of port. This is from Middle-English ladebord and the term lade is related to the modern load.[3] Larboard sounds similar to starboard and in 1844 the Royal Navy ordered that port be used instead.[4] Larboard continued to be used well into the 1850s by whalers. In Old English the word was bæcbord, of which cognates are used in other European languages, for example as the German backbord and the French term bâbord (derived in turn from Middle Dutch).

At night, the port side of a vessel or aircraft is indicated with a red navigation light and the opposite side with a green one, to help avoid collisions. The International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea state that a ship on the left must give way to a ship on its right. If the courses of two boats are intersecting, the helmsman usually gives way to a red light by going around the stern of the stand-on vessel. Sidelights are each lit from right ahead to 22.5 degrees abaft the beam on its corresponding side. A mnemonic for this is "If to starboard red appear, 'tis your duty to keep clear. Green to green, red to red perfect safety, go ahead."

Chip Ahoy said...

And you know yourself by being on docks, and being on boats, and seeing and experiencing yourself how they're parked straight in like a row of pleasure sailboats and how they're loaded this way and that, front ways and back. So all this came from before, way before, way way way before in the days of ancient triremes and such. Anywhere onboard, or off, it's still no improvement over right and left, the unambiguity comes from agreeing the viewpoint is onboard and not off, looking forward and not back, and that is all. Since you must make that assumption for the nautical language to work then so does the normal people's language.

This is relevant because I want to write a sentence such as "I felt the powerful psychic blast port side." Meaning I felt a shot to the head of someone thinking something AT me as an attack. Instead of saying it was felt on the side of my head, for some reason a switch to nautical terms seemed appropriate for visualization purposes even though it has nothing to do with navy. I don't know why. Thinking of the body as ship and keeping it straight through a difficult course when attacked broadside psychically. It's for an odd sentence, but still, to be exact it's the starboard side and not the port side of the head that felt it.

Chip Ahoy said...

I learned something that has me so disturbed I cannot stand it.

It's been killing me ever since. And I mean killing.

Somebody mentioned in passing, a woman told me this, she was talking about John suffering terribly and never once complaining. The toast to him was fashioned on his own saying, "It is what it is." I told her I did not know that. I thought John was just being quiet. She didn't like that and she looked at me sternly. Crossly. "As I was being quiet." Her expression softened. She paused and told me at one point John fell down his steps and broke both his arms and white hot shot ran up my spine like I had been kicked in the coccyx and I have not recovered. The thought of two broken arms is terrifying and that was just part of his suffering.

Man, that gets me.

Then another man said two consistent things that are both consistent and inconsistent with adage and it bugs me because they're used to corral people to do what they don't want to do and conversely to exclude people. Pick one, and stick with it, or drop them both. They're manipulative.

1) Adage: Funerals are for the living. Are they? Receptions too? Let's be clear about this, on Jupiter, we're consistent about this, on Jupiter funerals are definitely for the dead. But this is human Earth adage.

2) He would have wanted you to be here.

3) "Is Dougie here? I hope to see him." No. Dougie was not invited. John would not have wanted him here.

I don't know what Dougie told his gang about me but his whole little group treated me like they were meeting a god when I encountered them last time outdoors at John's. It's why I expected to see him.

Fine. The dead wants and doesn't want but funerals are for us, well, you, mostly. Your ways are manipulatively inconsistent. Most unJupiterlike.

rhhardin said...

What is it for capsized boats?

rhhardin said...

Port is red, like wine.

rhhardin said...

The airplane on the right gives way, as I recall. I never used the rule because the odds that he sees you are slim so just go over or under or around him.

There's a trick for seeing airplanes from the air. Fix your gaze on anything and look for movement in side vision. It works like magic, with the exception of airplanes that are on a collision course with you, unfortunately.

Constant bearing means collision.

rhhardin said...

Wristwatch goes on the port side.

MamaM said...

Starboard is stright. Steady as she goes.

Read about stright years ago in Reader's Digest and haven't had to fish since.

rcocean said...

One reason "Port" is used instead of "left" or "larboard" is that there can little confusion between the two terms. Its almost impossible for helmsman to confuse an order containing the two words since one is two syllables and the other isn't.

AllenS said...

What silliness. Why not just say, left or right?

rhhardin said...

Mirrors reverse front and back. If they reversed left and right, they'd reverse top and bottom as well.

rhhardin said...

Mirrors ought to reverse red and green, nevertheless.

rhhardin said...

If you're on the boat facing the bow and your left hand is towards the green light, your feet point up.

Dad Bones said...

Dog sledders and drivers of harnessed animals use Gee and Haw to direct the animals to the left or right.

Pony Time, 1961, by Chubby Checker

Now you turn to the left when I say gee,
You turn to the right when I say haw,
Now gee, ya ya little baby,
Now haw, ya oh baby, oh baby, pretty baby,
Do it baby, oh baby, oh baby,

Boogety, boogety, boogety, boogety shoo.