Definition of Port and Starboard

The side right of a boat it is known as starboard and the left as port. Together with bow and stern (front and rear of the boat respectively), they are the best known nautical terms.

The reason for this name

To understand the origin of this name, it is necessary to bear in mind that in ancient times many boats were moved by means of oars moved by men. The ship's rudder was located on the right side of the bow and this part in English was called steorborde, which is equivalent to side or part of the direction.

With the passage of time the word evolved and the starboard form was consolidated, which in Spanish is translated as starboard. As for the port side, for centuries English vessels used the word lardboard for refer to the left side, but from the 19th century onwards the term port was introduced, which in Spanish is port.

This change of name was due to a reason logical, since sometimes the words starboard and portboard were confused. It is believed that the word port may come from port-side, which is the side of the ship that is moored to the dock.

Traditionally the starboard part was used to load merchandise from ships. The port side was left free and the boat's rudder was incorporated into it.

The main parts of a boat

If we look at the hull of a ship from above, to the right of the stern is the starboard fin and to the left the port fin. In its forward part (the bow), there is the starboard bow on the right and the port wall on the left. If we want to refer to the dimension of a boat (from bow to stern) the term length is used.

It should not be forgotten, on the other hand, that the wind direction and the position of a boat are also related to starboard and port side and therefore we speak of starboard or port wind. Of course, if the ship is moving to the right, this maneuver is known as landing to starboard, and if it does so to the left it is called falling to port.

Nautical and land references have very different terms

In nautical terminology, there is no front and back, left and right, but rather fore and aft and port and starboard are used. On the other hand, the maritime mile and the land mile do not express the same distance (The nautical is equivalent to 1852 meters and the land to 1609 meters).

The same happens with the velocity, because on land we talk about kilometers per hour and at sea we talk about knots. If it is a question of locating on a plane, on earth a Mapwhile at sea nautical charts are used. As you can see the language terrestrial and the maritime they are not coincident.

Photos: Fotolia - Lifeofriley / Lovell