Port or Starboard, Help..ready to book!

[ghadler]

Which side of Brilliance on the Southern Caribbean cruise should we book to be on side where ship docks? Port or Starboard? Help...ready to book?

[wiscguy2]

cannot speak for certain on Brillance... but on Adventure southern caribbean... Aruba, St Marten, and Curacao were all on port side and St Thomas was on starboard side.

From all my cruises... I found I prefer port side. I have found it is more common to be the side that is docked and disembark on when in ports.

so starboard is the left side that looks out in the ocean right? and the right side is the dock in which we can watch people barely make it back to the ship? It seems to me it always changes. Let me know so I am more informed.

[cruisequeen]

Remember your sides like this:
Port has 3 letters - Left has 3 letters. This is when you're facing the front of the ship. SO Starboard is the right side of the ship when facing forward.

[LisaK]

there really is no definate way of knowing which side of the pier you will be docking on.
When facing the bow(front) of the ship. Port is the left side and Starbord is the right side

[Rev22:17]

Steven,

so starboard is the left side that looks out in the ocean right? and the right side is the dock in which we can watch people barely make it back to the ship? It seems to me it always changes. Let me know so I am more informed.

Ships have a "port" side and a "starboard" side just as you have a "left" side and a "right" side. If you are facing forward, the port side is on your left (note that both "port" and "left" have exactly four letters) and the starboard side is always on your right (note that both "starboard" and "right" have odd numbers of letters). In the British and American maritime world, odd numbers are customarily on the starboard side of the vessel and even numbers are customarily on the port side of the vessel -- and this applies not only to cabins, but also to mechanical systems and other equipment -- but some cruise lines follow the reverse numbering conbention.

All of this terminology has a history. Back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, sailing ships had tillers called "steer boards" that, for whatever reason, were customarily mounted on what would be the right side of the vessel (facing forward). The "steer board" made it impossible to put a gang plank, called a "load board" up to that side, so vessels started mooring with the left side to the pier. The sailors thus started referring to the "right" side of the vessel as the "steerboard" side and to the left side of the vessel as the "loadboard" side. Over the course of several decades, the pronounciation of "steerboard" degenerated to "starboard" and the pronounciation of "loadboard" degenerated to "larboard" so it became very difficult to distinguish between the two, especially in the presence of moderate background noise. As a result, a U. S. Secretary of the Navy issued an edict that the "larboard" side of the vessel would henceforth be called the "port" side, and the Royal Navy followed suit. The introduction of steam ships with modern steering systems, which replaced the "steer board" with electromagnetic synchrorepeaters linking the helm to the rudders, have eliminated the preference to moor a ship with the port side to the pier, but the historical terminology remains firmly entrenched in maritme culture.

Norm.

[Fern]

Originally Posted by Norm

All of this terminology has a history. Back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, sailing ships had tillers called "steer boards" that, for whatever reason, were customarily mounted on what would be the right side of the vessel (facing forward). The "steer board" made it impossible to put a gang plank, called a "load board" up to that side, so vessels started mooring with the left side to the pier. The sailors thus started referring to the "right" side of the vessel as the "steerboard" side and to the left side of the vessel as the "loadboard" side. Over the course of several decades, the pronounciation of "steerboard" degenerated to "starboard" and the pronounciation of "loadboard" degenerated to "larboard" so it became very difficult to distinguish between the two, especially in the presence of moderate background noise. As a result, a U. S. Secretary of the Navy issued an edict that the "larboard" side of the vessel would henceforth be called the "port" side, and the Royal Navy followed suit. The introduction of steam ships with modern steering systems, which replaced the "steer board" with electromagnetic synchrorepeaters linking the helm to the rudders, have eliminated the preference to moor a ship with the port side to the pier, but the historical terminology remains firmly entrenched in maritme culture.

Norm.

Interesting information, Norm. I'd wondered about this before.

Thanks,