My new boyfriend owns a Lake Erie cabin cruiser, so I’ve been learning all these new nautical terms (there is no ‘fore’ and ‘aft’ in a cornfield - it’s all just dirt).
I would like to know where the terms ‘port’ and ‘starboard’ came from. Port seems sensible, as most vessels “port” or moor on their left side. The term ‘starboard’, however, sounds like it has an interesting origination, and I would like to hear it and stump my “captain” some day.
Thanks,
shawna011
I read this so long ago, I can’t tell you where. Long ago, boats didn’t have rear mounted rudders. There was a “steer board” lashed to the right rear part of the boat. Why the right? I don’t know, but when the boat docked, it was tied up to the left side to avoid damaging the right-mounted steer board. So, when docked, the entrance to the port was on the left, and the steer board (later bastardized to “starboard”) was on the right.
If you want to learn a whole raft of nautical based words and phrases, go get When A Loose Cannon Flogs A Dead Horse There’s The Devil To Pay by Olivia A. Isil. (McGraw Hill)
Right idea, AskNott, but it needs a bit of adjustment. Starboard did, indeed, come from “steer board.” I’m pretty sure that the “board,” however, referred to the shipside. The original name for the left was the “load board” that was shortened to larboard that was changed to port because it was too easily misheard as starboard. The steering oar was traditionally placed on the right side in Europe right up until they developed a way to hang a rudder off the stern in the late twelfth century. Even so, stern rudders did not replace side-hung rudders as a rule until almost the fifteenth century as most ships were built with curved sterns that would cause the rudder to jut out into the water with no protection.
Correct as usual Tom. Here’s what my dictionary says:
star-board (stär`berd, -bôrd) n. [[ME sterbord < OE steorbord < steoran, to STEER (the old rudder being a large oar used on the right side of the ship) + bord: see BOARD]] the right-hand side of a ship, boat, or airplane as one faces forward.
Sheet. No, not the sail! It’s the rope that controls the sail, such as a main sheet or a jib sheet
Line. A rope used on shipboard
Painter. A line on the bow, used for securing or towing a boat.
Deck. What you walk on. It’s never called the “floor”!
Overhead. What’s over your head! Never the “ceiling”.
Abaft. Toward the stern.
Abeam. Toward the side.
Red, Right, Returning. A memory aid. The starboard running light is green. The port running light is red. If the red light is to the right of the green light, the vessel is coming toward you.
Splice the mainbrace. A fortifying drink of alcohol.
Cleat. A device for holding a sheet, such as the main sheet or jib sheet. Also, a wooden or metal fitting around which a rope can be made fast.
That’s enough. It might be fun to have people post other nauticle terms.
It is a memory aid, but it actually refers to buoys. On rivers and estuaries, the red buoys are always on the right when returning from the sea, while the green (formerly black) buoys are on the left. So if you get lost on a wide spot in a foggy river and a red buoy shows up to your port/left, you are heading out to sea rather than returning from it.
As to running lights, if you can see the other guy’s red light, he has the right-of-way. If you can see his green light, you have the right-of-way. If you can see both, he is going to run you down. (You cannot actually see both if you are behind him, because the green and red lights are only visible to two points (22 1/2°) aft of the midship line. Stern lights are white.) So, if you approach a ship from anywhere on his port bow or a little behind his port beam (side), he has the right-of-way while if from his right, you have the right-of-way.
Nautical terms are one thing but there are also many nautical terms that have entered everyday language as slang. Here in the UK some of it is rather old fashioned now, but for what it’s worth I can recall:
Taken aback (col.: to be surprised) - a sailing term for when you get the wind on the wrong side of the sail(s) and are about to be in serious trouble!
Three sheets to the wind (col.: to be drunk) - to be out of control such that the sheets (see explanation above) are blowing loose in the wind and not in the hands of the crew.
I am sure I can think of more given time but any other contributions meanwhile?
Actually, I grew up in a flying family. The “RRR” device was learned as a way to determine the direction of another aircraft at night (bouys being scarce at altitude, y’see). If you see a red light on the right, the aircraft is heading toward you (“red, right, returning”). If you see a red light, the aircraft is passing from right to left. If you see a green light, the aircraft is passing from left to right. If you see a white light, you’re too damned close to his tail! 
It might simplify some of the air traffic controller issues.
It is interesting how the phrase was adapted to aircraft usage. I’m trying to think of any similar mnemonics for boat-handling, but I’m pretty sure that they don’t use RRR for ships in motion because of the prior claim by the navigation aids.
AFAIK, the seaborne-to-airborne terminology only works one way. Sailboats have cockpits, and so do aircraft. But there were sailboats on the ocean at least a month before there were aircraft in the sky! 
Interestingly, many early civil aircraft were float-planes or flying boats (the former has pontoons and the latter has a hull). This was necessary because of the dearth of land-landing sites.
Hey, tomndebb-where’d you learn so much about sailing? I grew up on the Chesapeake myself.
Aside from my general fascination with knowledge, in general, I also sailed two summers as a merchant seaman on the Great Lakes.
On red right returning:
I believe that you are correct for the United States and Southeast Asia. These regions, as well as perhaps some others, use the IALA-B system of channel buoyage. In Europe, the IALA-A system is used, and is the opposite. Unfortunately my Coast Guard Institute flashcards predate the this development (copyright 1985), so I’m not entirely sure.
The mnemonics I know for ships in motion are all for masthead lights:
red over green, sailing machine
red over white, fishing at night
green over white, trawling at night
red over red, captain’s dead (and if you ask nicely, I’ll tell you about the time I was on a ship with this light configuration for a little while, and no it doesn’t mean that the captain is literally dead)
And, if you’re operating around a ship channel:
white over red - pilot ahead
(Ports often supply pilots for incoming/outgoing ships when the navigation is tricky and/or the ship crew is unfamiliar with that particular area. The pilots are often transported to and from the ship by small boats called, surprisingly enough, pilot boats. A white light over a red light means you are seeing a pilot boat performing its official duty.)
It’s been a long time since I had to remember all of this shit, but doesn’t this mean you’re aground?
I should probably not be imposing my culturo-centric answers on the board so hastily. (On the other hand, “Red Right Returning” appears to be the mnemonic used to indicate that the IALA-B system is in use.) On the other hand, when I had to know this stuff, there were over 70 separate international protocols that have now been reduced to the two from IALA (International Association of Lighthouse Authorities), so picking one to know that was pertinent to me seemed reasonable.
This site lists several mnemonics. It is intended for small boaters (and some of its later mnemonics are really contrived stretches), but it does provide some basic information in a readable format.
Boating Definitions and Mnemonics
It includes the following information on Buoyage:
Red over red can mean that the ship has run aground, if the running lights are off and the lights for being at anchor are on. In general it means that the ship is not under command. Basically, if the ship is in any way disabled such that it cannot maneuver correctly.
The time it happened to me, I was on the USS Juneau, a very old amphibious ship, although a couple years newer than the USS Ogden, which I understand ManGeorge was on in the Seventies. We were just entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca for a port call in Seattle, running on only one boiler. Rather suddenly, everything on the ship gets dark and quiet. Apparently, when the second boiler had to be shut down, both of the backup deisel generators failed as well (for unrelated reasons).
Now, the Strait of Juan de Fuca is not a good place to have this happen, as it’s a busy and constrained channel, and we had just entered the traffic separation scheme. Luckily for us, we had about three degrees of left rudder dialed up at the time, so we drifted nicely into the median area, rather than the coast. While waitind there, the red over red designation applied to us. Kind of embarassing for a Navy warship, and certainly not a happy day for the Captain.
And Tom, I have to say that someone could put the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica on your desk, and the next day you’d have written up a more complete and accurate version.
I doubt that, but Thanks.
Thanks, waterj2. I knew there was something to do with whether or not your running lights, etc. were on, but I couldn’t remember how it went. (Comforting to know that I used to steer a steel-hulled boat around the Gulf of Mexico, huh?)
Re: the old and new buoy systems - wasn’t one of the major differences the color of the buoys? Old system=red and black, new system=red and green?
Yep. All the black cans are green, now.