Fun fact: the "port" side used to frequently be called "larboard" until the British Royal Navy realized it was too easily confused with "starboard" and ordered sailors to stop using the term. After that it gradually fell out of favor.

What makes you say "port" and "starboard" are more clear than "front" and "back"?

"Port", "starboard" are unambiguously defined relative to the vessel. "Left" and "right" require specifying or guessing a point of reference.

For instance if you're facing port and I ask you to take two steps forward, you could either take two steps to port or two steps towards the bow. If I tell you to take two steps to port then the direction is unambiguous.

In theater you always specific 'stage left' or 'stage right' for the same reason, even though it's more syllables.

I've told my doctor that I had a problem with my passenger-side nostril before

One fun thing about this is that I have to guess what country you're in to know which side you mean.

The passenger side is where the booger is sitting.

It's still ambiguous.

"Stage left" as if I'm standing looking towards the stage from the audience, or looking from the stage towards the audience?

No it isn't because the term was invented specifically to avoid this confusion -- it means "left from the perspective of the performer facing the audience".

ok, but forward on a boat is toward the bow, as unambiguous port and starboard

It's the difference between "forward for you" and "forward for the boat". Without words like "port", you might do the wrong thing when I say "take one step forward". Did I mean for you to go further in the direction you're already facing, or did I want you to step towards the prow?

We use similar approaches with terrestrial navigation too.

At the intersection of Main and Oak, go two blocks east. The building will be on the north side of the street.

Those instructions are the same no matter what direction the person is facing or direction they came from.

However, on a ship, the absolute positions of NSEW (relative to the Earth) aren't as useful as the ship may be heading any direction (and may be going forward or reverse). So a different absolute coordinate system is use - fore, aft, port, starboard.

Terrestrial navigation is also multidirectional.

It's not as unambiguous because, to the guy with his back to starboard, forward could just as easily mean port! It may seem clear if someone's shouting, and pointing, at the bow, but if I'm recounting the action of a tense combat scene and say he "slips on a banana peel and falls 'forward'", you can't know for sure what I mean- does he fall straight towards port, or does he a break a leg, twisting, tumbling toward the bow? c:

You can step forward to any side of the boat.

In Soviet Russia, the boat can step forward to any side of YOU!

It's not, because forward depends where you are looking it. That is, the front part of the boat might be on your back.

So "move forward" doesn't say much, whereas "toward the bow" e.g. does.

Same for left/right compared to port/startboard.

It's not "front" and "back" it's "left side of the boat" and "right side of the boat".

More correctly, the "left side of the boat" and "no, the other left side of the boat."

Oops.

I'm sorry you got downvoted, it's a reasonable question to ask and I would have voted it up if my noprocrast hadn't run out.

Aft and forward would be back and front.

The alternatives are left and right respectively. They're more clear because left and right are usually relative to the speaker or listener who may be facing each other and are often moving around.

Also the problem of right having another meaning.

“You want me to turn right, right?”

Or worse, "You want me to turn left?" "Right!"

"You want me to turn left? "Right" "Right right?" "No left".

After that Port/Starboard would make sense and I'd be chucking someone over one of them.

As a former US Navy Sailor, port and starboard are pretty clear. Along with Forward and Aft. These are things relative to the ship and points in which everyone is aware of on a ship. If I say starboard, that is right of the center of the ship. Port is left of center line of the ship.

a) They refer to left and right, not front and back (which I believe would be "forward" and "aft").

b) With the possible exception of "forward", if you hear one of these words you always know it's specifying a direction relative to the direction the boat is pointing, which is not true for "left" and "right".

Often just fore instead of forward, or a particular pronunciation like for’d for “the front of the boat as opposed to in front of the speaker”.

Lots of other jargon too for other directions or places (leeward, windward, amidships, athwartships, etc) but that is all much less common than the four listed above.

Windward and leeward are still commonly used in my experience.

Also, there's a fun additional distinction for forward and aft, which is that they tend to refer to locations within the vessel. Ahead and astern are used to refer to locations outside of the vessel.

After about 8 years of sailing fairly regularly with various crews, I still get many of the terms mixed up. For instance, stanchions and shrowds are terms that are useful, but they never seen to come to mind when I need to communicate them.

Yes, I always found "left" and "right" so unclear and ambiguous.

Right! Why use port when left is right? Nonmariners left starboard right at port, left port there as well. Maybe modern mariners should port left back to their lexicon before they're left behind.

Correct, turn right

I left the cheese on the left side

How are those terms less ambiguous than left and right?