Pass the port to the left

[mrsdanvers]

Why port and starboard not left and right?

[incitatus]

originally starboard and larboard....named after the sides of the ship. One story goes that sailors were largely illiterate, simple souls who might have to think long and hard if you asked them to turn to the left, so if you turn to the side where the port is when you dock it saves having to paint L and R on their hands. Wether this is true I don't know, but its what Ive heard. And its not just sailors. I knew a young lady who had to navigate when driving using "Jane" and "simon" as her directions. "simon " being her boyfriend who sat in the passenger seat.(2nd turning on the simon......)

[hermite]

I think the term starboard is a corruption of the word steer-board or rudder. Originally ships used to have the rudder on the right so that when they came into port it did not knock into the dock. The left side became the port side.