Portside and Starboard side

(Information collected from Net)

Most of you might have heard the term Portside and Starboard side in relation to a ship.. These are actually nautical terms which refer to the left and right side of the ship respectively when you are looking towards the Bow (the front of the ship – also known as Fore).. The rear of the ship is termed as Stern (also known as Aft)..

As per Wikipedia, before ships had rudders on their centerlines, they were steered by use of a specialized steering oar.. This oar was held by an oarsman located in the stern (back) of the ship.. However, like most of society, there were many more right-handed sailors than left-handed sailors. This meant that the steering oar (which had been broadened to provide better control) used to be affixed to the right side of the ship..

If you find yourself on a ship, how do you know which side is starboard and which side is port? As a Naval Man the answer is quite simple - Port is left and starboard is right. But if you were travelling on a ship for the first time, how could you remember that? Well, it is really quite simple. There are four letters in the words PORT and LEFT so you can easily remember that the left side of a ship is the port side.

Mnemonic devices

• The sailor left port with a red nose.
• Port and left both contain four letters.
• "No, port left"
• The common abbreviation P.S. (for postscript) can be viewed as port ("left") and starboard ("right").
• "Star light, star bright, starboard is to the right."
• A ship that is out on the ocean has "left port".
• Terms referring to the right side are longer words ("starboard", "right", and "green"), while terms referring to the other side are shorter words ("port", "left", and "red").
• The phrase "Any red port left in the can?" can be a useful reminder. It breaks down as follows:
  • The drink port is a fortified red wine—which links the word "port" with the color red, used for navigational lights (see below).
  • "Left" comes from the phrase and so port must be on the left.
  • The reference to "can" relates to the fact that port-hand buoys are "can"-shaped.
• A variation on the above is "Two drops of red port left in the bottle." Also: "Port wine is red; so is the port light."