Jump to content

Port side


asda

Recommended Posts

We alway do Portside from Europe to USA but starboard if coming from USA to Europe, you get more sunshine. I recently told another couple who were doing a TA from Barcalona to Miami that she should change her balcony cabin to Portside, she wouldn't have it, but she came up to me at the end of the cruise and told me she wished she had as they got hardly any sun on her side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you're facing forward (the bow), port is the left side. The cruise director on the POA, I think, taught us the trick that meglet mentioned on our first cruise. Port and Left both have four letters.

 

Edited to add: port side is not always facing the port when docked. That depends on several factors and is not always consistent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One more bit of cruise trivia - just in case you ever get on Jeopardy, and it may be just a legend - the word "posh" came from how wealthy people would book cruise cabins on Transatlantic crossings. Port out, starboard home. POSH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One more bit of cruise trivia - just in case you ever get on Jeopardy, and it may be just a legend - the word "posh" came from how wealthy people would book cruise cabins on Transatlantic crossings. Port out, starboard home. POSH.

 

Not according to Snopes;).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which is port side of ship? ,does this mean its always at port side???

 

"Port side" is left while facing forward/toward the bow of the ship. Port side does NOT indicate (today) which side of the ship will be toward the port/shore. On our cruise a few weeks back, starboard side was parked toward the port/shore.

 

DML

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One more bit of cruise trivia - just in case you ever get on Jeopardy, and it may be just a legend - the word "posh" came from how wealthy people would book cruise cabins on Transatlantic crossings. Port out, starboard home. POSH.

 

That would mean that all the wealthy people are from Europe!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Port means "left"....Starboard means "right".....it has NOTHING to do with the pier or dock! It's simply ship-speak!

 

That isn't entirely true...

 

 

Starboard (right)

 

The origin of the term starboard comes from early boating practices. Before ships had rudders on their centrelines, 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, similar to now, 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. The word starboard comes from Old English steorbord, literally meaning the side on which the ship is steered, descendant from the Old Norse words stýri meaning "rudder" (from the verb stýra, literally "being at the helm", "having a hand in") and borð meaning etymologically "board", then the "side of a ship".

 

 

Port (left)

 

An early version of "port" is larboard, which itself derives from Middle-English ladebord via corruption in the 16th century by association with starboard. The term larboard, when shouted in the wind, was presumably too easy to confuse with starboard and so the word port came to replace it. Port is derived from the practice of sailors mooring ships on the left side at ports in order to prevent the steering oar from being crushed.

 

Larboard continued to be used well into the 1850s by whalers, despite being long superseded by "port" in the merchant vessel service at the time. "Port" was not officially adopted by the Royal Navy until 1844 (Ray Parkin, H. M. Bark Endeavour). Robert FitzRoy, Captain of Darwin's HMS Beagle, is said to have taught his crew to use the term port instead of larboard, thus propelling the use of the word into the Naval Services vocabulary.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And who said these boards were not educational.. :)

 

Next why do ships often berth facing to sea..

 

In the old sailing days the warships had to be ready to meet the incoming enemy and didnt have time or ability to quickly spin a ship around and so would berth ready to go...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That isn't entirely true...

 

 

Starboard (right)

 

The origin of the term starboard comes from early boating practices. Before ships had rudders on their centrelines, 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, similar to now, 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. The word starboard comes from Old English steorbord, literally meaning the side on which the ship is steered, descendant from the Old Norse words stýri meaning "rudder" (from the verb stýra, literally "being at the helm", "having a hand in") and borð meaning etymologically "board", then the "side of a ship".

 

 

Port (left)

 

An early version of "port" is larboard, which itself derives from Middle-English ladebord via corruption in the 16th century by association with starboard. The term larboard, when shouted in the wind, was presumably too easy to confuse with starboard and so the word port came to replace it. Port is derived from the practice of sailors mooring ships on the left side at ports in order to prevent the steering oar from being crushed.

 

Larboard continued to be used well into the 1850s by whalers, despite being long superseded by "port" in the merchant vessel service at the time. "Port" was not officially adopted by the Royal Navy until 1844 (Ray Parkin, H. M. Bark Endeavour). Robert FitzRoy, Captain of Darwin's HMS Beagle, is said to have taught his crew to use the term port instead of larboard, thus propelling the use of the word into the Naval Services vocabulary.

I have a headache!:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've heard the POSH acronym before, but I understood it to be on ships travelling from the UK to India, because that was the coolest (and hence the more expensive) side of the ship.

I have heard the same thing....it came from the old P&O line which more or less 'owned' that route.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...