Starboard, Larboard, and Port

In other words, right, left and left again. The origins of the nautical names for left and right hail from having the steering gear on the right hand side of the boat, hence the star-board nomenclature. Back in the day, they called the left hand side ‘Larboard’, but it was confusing to hear in times of stress and heavy weather.

Since the boat could not pull up to a dock on the right hand side due to the steering gear, it always docked on the left hand side, which was closer to the ‘Port’, hence the new name.

We will revisit the steering gear on starboard side when discussing the rules of the road, stay tuned!