Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left” and “right?”

Re:Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left”... by taeric on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @06:34PM (#35621364)

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".

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Re:Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left”... by rng_civ on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @07:11PM (#35621793)

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.

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Re:Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left”... by taeric on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @07:52PM (#35622198)

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.

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