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

oceanservice.noaa.gov

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

#281

Post by eloisant »

lostlogin wrote: post #258
HPsquared wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're inside a ship, it's often hard to say what way around you are: "left" and "right" have utility for the perspective of a person onboard. Port and starboard are the onboard equivalent of North/South/East/West when walking on land, especially if you're inside a building with no windows for external reference. This is unlike for a doctor, where it's obvious which side is which: you can see the patient.

> This is unlike for a doctor, where it's obvious which side is which: you can see the patient. This isn’t always true and it’s not always obvious. For example with imaging - axial slices of the patient through symmetrical structures. The brain, lower abdo, a single leg or arm etc, etc. There are conventions in image display for a reason - it is not obvious. For axial slices, as an observer, you are positioned as tho…

I don't know, when you're talking about "the right arm", it seems obvious that it's the patient's right arm and not the arm that you see on your right when you're looking at the patient. I don't think you need to go to medical school to understand that.

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

#282

Post by willyt »

jrockway wrote: post #253
endtime wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many of these have common non-nautical uses? I don't think I ever use any of these terms, or hear anyone else use them, in common speech.

"at the helm" seems like common usage to me. Maybe not in the top 100 idioms, but everyone knows what you mean. "tiller" is just the thing that controls the position of the rudder, which I think most people know about. (That said, nobody in aviation calls their rudder pedals the "tiller", so it might be a strictly nautical term.)

I think they sometimes call the thing that steers the nose wheel the tiller.

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

#286

Post by ChrisRR »

HPsquared wrote: post #254
antognini wrote: post #89

It's interesting to compare how different professions handle the ambiguity in left/right. In the maritime world they went with an approach at one extreme, where they just use two completely separate words, "port" and "starboard." (Though that's far from the only case where there's a special word for something on a boat.) At the other extreme you have the medical profession where the first thing you learn in medical s…

If you're inside a ship, it's often hard to say what way around you are: "left" and "right" have utility for the perspective of a person onboard. Port and starboard are the onboard equivalent of North/South/East/West when walking on land, especially if you're inside a building with no windows for external reference. This is unlike for a doctor, where it's obvious which side is which: you can see the patient.

> you can see the patient.

Often not true. In any sort of imaging it can be ambiguous what way the patient is facing

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

#287

Post by atoav »

antognini wrote: post #89

It's interesting to compare how different professions handle the ambiguity in left/right. In the maritime world they went with an approach at one extreme, where they just use two completely separate words, "port" and "starboard." (Though that's far from the only case where there's a special word for something on a boat.) At the other extreme you have the medical profession where the first thing you learn in medical s…

As a camera operator or director I always tended to use "your left/right", "my left/right" or "camera left/right". The first two made their way into my everyday speak as well.

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

#288

Post by [deleted] »

jojobas wrote: post #219
acherion wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And it's not always reversed! Australian-made and Japanese-made cars tend to have indicator on the right stalk, and wipers on the left. European cars tend to have indicators on the left stalk, and wipers on the right. But not always! Case in point: my wife and I live in Australia (have done so all our lives), and my wife had a 2008 Ford Focus, made in South Africa (a RHD country). Indicator stalk was on the left, wip…

Blinkers were always on the outside when most cars had manual transmissions, the opposite would be very inconvenient (and still is). Then somehow Britain didn't challenge the EU regulation that indicators must be on the left regardless of the driving side. Japanese and Korean cars still supply right-hand indicatored-cars to Japan, Australia and New Zealand, yet left-indicatored to the UK, go figure, European ones don…

[deleted]

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

#289

Post by ChrisRR »

eloisant wrote: post #281
lostlogin wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is unlike for a doctor, where it's obvious which side is which: you can see the patient. This isn’t always true and it’s not always obvious. For example with imaging - axial slices of the patient through symmetrical structures. The brain, lower abdo, a single leg or arm etc, etc. There are conventions in image display for a reason - it is not obvious. For axial slices, as an observer, you are positioned as tho…

I don't know, when you're talking about "the right arm", it seems obvious that it's the patient's right arm and not the arm that you see on your right when you're looking at the patient. I don't think you need to go to medical school to understand that.

Assumptions like this is how errors are made.

Don't make assumptions, codify it.

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