Why is the ship right hand side called the starborad side?

Question

Why is the ship right hand side called the starborad side?

Answer 1

The Captain of the ship stood to the right of the helm, and used the "starboard" side to steady his sextant, and look to the skies to plot his course, thus it is called the star-board.  The "port" side, is customarily the side used to dock the ship, when it is in port.

Answer 2

idk . Some sailer made it up

Answer 3

The Vikings called the side of their ship its board, and they placed the steering oar, the "star" on the right side of the ship, thus that side became known as the "star board." It's been that way ever since. And, because the oar was in the right side, the ship was tied to the dock at the left side. This was known as the loading side or "larboard". Later, it was decided that "larboard" and "starboard" were too similar, especially when trying to be heard over the roar of a heavy sea, so the phrase became the "side at which you tied up to in port" or the "port" side.

Answer 4

The origin of term comes from old boating practices. Before ships had rudders on their centerline, they were steered by use of a specialized oar. This oar was held by a sailor located towards the stern (back) of the ship. However, like most of the rest of society, there were many more right-handed sailors than left-handed sailors. This meant that the right-handed sailors holding the steering oar (which had been broadened to provide better control) used to stand on the right side of the ship. The word starboard comes from Old English steorbord, literally meaning the side on which the ship is steered. The old English term steorbord descends from the Old Norse words stýri meaning “rudder” and borð meaning “side of a ship”. The modern term "steering wheel" comes from the same language root as "starboard" or "steer board".

Similarly, the term for the left side of the boat, port, is derived from the practice of sailors mooring on the left side (i.e., the larboard or loading side) as to prevent the steering boards from being crushed. Because the words larboard and starboard sounded too similar to be easily distinguished, larboard was changed to port.

The starboard side of most naval vessels the world over is designated the 'senior' side. The officers' gangway or sea ladder is shipped on this side and this side of the quarterdeck is reserved for the captain. The flag or pennant of the ship's captain or senior officer in command is generally hoist on the starboard yard.

Answer 5

Starboard is a term used on boats and ships to mean the right side of the vessel, as perceived by a person facing forward (i.e., towards the pointy end).

The origin of this term is as follows. Once upon a time, before boats had rudders on their centerline, boats were steered by use of a specialized oar. This oar was held by a sailor located towards the stern (back) of the boat. However, like most of the rest of society, there were many more right-handed sailors than left-handed sailors. This meant that the right-handed sailors holding the steering oar (which had been broadened to provide better control) used to stand on the right side of the boat. Thus, starboard is a corruption of steering board.

As a side note, the reason the term port, which refers the left side of the boat, came to be called that, was because the sailors did not want to crush their steering boards between their vessel and the dock, so the left side of the boat was always set against the pier (i.e., the port).

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Starboard."

Answer 6

You can find it all here

Answer 7

Dave gave a very good explanation, but here is a little extra: How to tell which side is starboard or port:  Well, all the long words go together - Starboard, Right, Green and the short ones - Port, Left, Red.

The word Posh (meaning wealthy) also comes from this:  Port out, Starboard home.  It was a special request for quarters that overlooked the land on the way out and again the land on the way home.............