Because left and right are ambiguous - are you talking about MY left or the boat’s left? Having unambiguous names let’s us differentiate and avoid confusion.

It might be hard to grok the need for this if you’ve never been in a tight spot while sailing or operating a watercraft with a crew - but having this distinction has probably saved thousands of bad incidents from happening.

I can see it as advantageous. With the major caveat that it is only advantageous to folks that have been taught it. Not shockingly, a large portion of the passengers on a boat are going to be confused if told to go to the starboard windows to see the whales that are beside the boat. How will you explain it? I'm going to guess that you will probably say "right." :D. (Note that this isn't hypothetical. I take a ferry fairly often, and surprisingly few of us know starboard from port.)

Yes, in that situation, you can confidently tell them to look to their right, because you can assume that most of them will sit in direction of travel and face forward. However, the same is not true for a sailor who might be running around on deck.

This isn't accurate, either. Most of us are decidedly not facing the direction of travel. Specifically, we are evenly split in large parts of the boat, as they have bench chairs that face each other. Or you are on the side of the boat facing out.

The ferry is actually a very odd boat in this, btw. As I am not clear that starboard/port are fixed. The boat literally goes in both directions, such that I'm assuming I don't have to know which is the "front" of it irrespective of the direction it is currently traveling.

I get your point, that things can be difficult. And I appreciate having jargon that is specific for an attempt to make things clearer. I just find this as the sole explanation kind of unsatisfactory. Seeing the history of the terms makes a lot more sense.

> The ferry is actually a very odd boat in this, btw. As I am not clear that starboard/port are fixed. The boat literally goes in both directions, such that I'm assuming I don't have to know which is the "front" of it irrespective of the direction it is currently traveling.

From what I understand, on ferries (and similar "two-sided" working boats), port and starboard get switched around when the boat changes direction of travel, usually when docked (and its navigation lights also turn from green to red and vice-versa).

Port and starboard are indeed fixed (same with bow and stern), so that no matter which way the boat is moving or the passengers are facing, those words always refer to the same physical sides of the boat :)

Per another thread, this may not be the case for ferries? At least not for ones that don't turn around. (Note that many "people ferry" boats are able to turn around. Larger car ferries are fully symmetric and have no fixed bow/stern.

Edit: I found more discussion on this by searching for "double ended" boats. Port/starboard do indeed change depending on the direction of travel from all results I've found.

Hmm interesting. Wonder if they have some non-symmetrical parts, like the location of the engine maybe?

Sure. If nothing else, they've got labels on 'end 1' and 'end 2', and the rest of the boat is labeled into quadrants that don't change (A-D). If there's a galley, that's on one end or the other; the passenger deck is assymmetric.

The car decks and the sundeck appear to be mostly symmetric other than labelling, and maybe elevator placement? The machinery under the car decks is likely somewhat assymetric too, but I've never gotten to go down below.

Not the ones I ride. They have engines on each end.

To be fair, they may not be 100% symmetrical. I am not measuring. They are close enough that I can't imagine it would be a good use of the terms. (That is, when the VAST majority of the time the bow is the front of the boat, having a few bigger boats where I have to inspect it to know which is bow and stern would be a bad idea.)

Yes but why would you ever be talking about your left? Use the definite article, THE left, and it should be clear by convention for the sailors.

I think it's just historical.

Imagine you are crew, standing on a ship. You are facing east, and the bow of the ship is facing north. It’s night and there is a thick fog.

You hear a cry “man overboard on the left!”

Where is the overboard person? Are they to your left, the ships left, or the left of the person shouting?

If the cry is instead “man overboard on the port side!” there is no question.

Great points. And I'd add that thanks to wind and water, ships can also move in directions besides the obvious one. So it's possible in this case the boat could be moving west, giving another direction that left could be relative to.

This feels contrived, to be honest. Late at night on a vehicle that isn't moving with no other discerning factors to distinguish things, and you are basically screwed. Though, realistically, you are just going to wherever the shouting is coming from, you are not going to go slow to orient yourself to the vehicle. Even better, someone would yell something even more defining for where to catch someone that is going to be specific to the boat you are on. (Well, more realistically, you have hopefully practiced emergency drills such that the term is almost irrelevant, you have practiced so much.)

This is about as worrisome as "you are the fire department, and you are told you need to rescue some people on the 14th floor. Quick, does that mean you go up 13 flights of stairs, or 11?" Realistically, you aren't getting it right on spur of the moment decision making.

Any room for error is a guarantee that a human will mess it up. Left already has a definition, so there's room for confusion; a word specifically talking about the ship is more concise.

Whether "the left" means your left, the ship's left or yet another left (the harbour's?) is highly ambiguous. You can't assume that everyone will instantly understand this correctly.

I think starboard and port make more sense here because they only describe parts of the ship, so the meaning of the terms is completely unambiguous.

"Left" vs "the left" is not good enough. That could still mean either concept semantically, and you can't be sure the person speaking to you didn't mess up the convention when the two are that close.

A crew (any kind of crew) requires exceedingly clear communication. "Ship left" and "ship right" could work, but what if the environment is noisy and you're not sure if the first word was "ship" or something else? Domain-specific, unique terms are fantastic tools for crews.

Pass that to the left

As opposed to "the other left".

There are other uses for the definite article. E.g., "Down the hall and on the left." It's also used in relation to motion. "Go to the left of that ship." Even if you went with it, though, it still has the potential to be confusing.

Speaking as somebody who sails occasionally, to me "left" and "port" are just very different concepts. It's sort of like driver's side and passenger's side of the car, but more intense. So I think the desire to use "left" mainly comes from people who don't spend much time on ships, an audience, not particularly important to sailors. Sort of like how non-programmers might struggle with some of our technical terms, but we'd never change.

There's a similar issue in medical imaging, when oriented with the patient "facing you". Then my left is patient right and vice versa.

This is why in the days of processed x-ray films, TV shows would more commonly hang a chest x-ray incorrectly[1], with the (patient's) "left" label on the left instead of the right. It's less common now that the example imaging is digital.

[1] https://screenrant.com/scrubs-xray-gag-joke-deeper-meaning/

Because "boat left" and "boat right" just didn't catch on.

Because if you face the back of the boat the sides reverse. It’s similar to stage left. When you can’t afford to be confused, one name is better than a conflicting argument between your left and the boats left.

But if I'm looking at you and speak of your left hand, I am not speaking of the hand to my left. Literally nobody does that. At least not on purpose.

Do you own a car? Commonly when speaking with a mechanic they'll ask questions like Driver's side or Passenger's side to get away from left/right.

People very often describe things with just _left_ or just _right_. They don't say things like when I'm sitting in the car the door to my left is hard to open. They just say the left door is broken even when both them and the mechanic are facing the car head on.

By having people use an unambiguous vocabulary it makes up for people not thinking about how their statements will be interpreted. If the deckhands were genius's they're be charting the course not heaving rope.

You aren't wrong. In that mistakes can be made. But if I ask you about your left hand, is that ambiguous? By your definition here, that is an ambiguous question. But, that just feels wrong.

Edit: I'll note that it is amusing to compare to cars. It seems the etymology of the terms is literally "driver side".

It's not ambiguous because you have a directional reference built into the phrase and speaking directly to a singular person: "ask you about your left hand".

It is certainly clear if one would say "left facing stern" or "left facing aft", but that's a mouthful when you can just shorten it (and the reference facing direction is not relevant). Bonus points if the shortened version can't be mistaken for another direction...

BTW, I'm 100% down for introducing dedicated words for "my left", "your left" etc vs just "on the left". It would certainly save me a bit of time when my family asks me to look for something and they flip between the two meanings in the same sentence.

This still falls due to you having to have a point of reference for front of boat. See other threads where double ended ones do not have fixed starboard and port.

I am still on board with dedicated terms.

Ambiguity can be cultural. In some dialects in the Philippines, the only required preposition is "sa". Others exist, but aren't required for speaking.

It's intriguing to say the least.

Reminds me of this book[0] about (air-cooled) VW maintenance, which goes right into how to tear down and rebuild the engine. Anyway, it can be disorienting, at the back of the car, looking at the engine and knowing what’s front/back, but I recall he wrote something like:

  Now look at the front of the engine (FRONT IS FRONT) and you’ll see…

Also, happens to generally be one of the most beautiful to read and to look-at technical manuals I can think of. Right up there w The C Programming Language.

[0] https://olsensvw.net/shop/engine/idiot-book-how-to-keep-your...

The problem is that people (especially in stressful situations when they’re not thinking carefully) will say things like “that one on the left!” and the person they’re talking to (who is often facing them and thus reversed) won’t think to ask “my left or yours?”

But if you train people to use specifically-invented unambiguous terms that can’t be screwed up, their brains will reach for those words when they’re in trouble.

What if you're addressing someone on a boat who's facing sideways? Or a group of people facing different directions? Or you can't see them and don't know which direction they're facing, and they don't know which direction you're facing?

True but you are not wandering around yourself! I agree though that the first para looks like just so nonsense. I know plenty of matelots (UK Navy) that use left and right, sharp end and blunt end for the cardinal points of a vessel. I do as well and use port, starb'd, bow and stern as they do too.

Ironically enough, port and starboard markers which are the red and green buoys you see near to ports (yes!) need to be considered in reverse when going out. The green ones are called starboard markers and if you are in a big enough vessel, you should keep them off your starboard (right) side when approaching a port from the open seas. On the way out from port to the open seas you should keep the red ones on your right instead. If you don't you will hit the seabed and sink.

Once you have got the hang of p/s buoys, you just need to get to grips with cardinal markers and a few other things and the way you drive on the sea will start to make sense. Even Brits drive on the right on the seas!

There is a general rule that "power gives way to sail". That's fine for vessels of similar size. However I have seen 30' yachts on the Baltic try to persuade 100,000+ tonne tankers of this and not really getting the fact that inertia means that the big lump can't really turn in any meaningful way - they sort of orbit!

Overtaking vessel keeps clear. On odd numbered years when Mars is in Saturn on a Friday you should dance with a Nun for three minutes at midnight every 70 days, unless it's Lent or you are a Nun in which case you should dance with an otter. There are a few more rules but that is largely it. Maritime isn't too complicated but do remember that the road has a habit of jumping 30' or more upwards or down simply for a laugh.

> Ironically enough, port and starboard markers which are the red and green buoys you see near to ports (yes!) need to be considered in reverse when going out. The green ones are called starboard markers and if you are in a big enough vessel, you should keep them off your starboard (right) side when approaching a port from the open seas. On the way out from port to the open seas you should keep the red ones on your right instead. If you don't you will hit the seabed and sink.

Just to keep things fun, that's the european convention. In the US it's "red right returning", the exact opposite.

This: https://www.cruisingworld.com/red-right-returning/ describes it better than you or I:

"But whether they are green to port and red to starboard or the opposite depends entirely upon what region of the world you are navigating. The IALA established two regions: Region A and Region B.

Region A consists of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, parts of Africa and most of Asia. When entering a harbor in this region, marks to port are red and marks to starboard are green.

Region B consists of North America, Central America and South America, plus the Philippines, Japan and Korea. When entering a harbor in this region, marks to port are green and marks to starboard are red (red, right, return!)."

I had no idea but I do now!

There is no "left", there is only "your left" or "my left".