• Stamets@startrek.websiteOP
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      1 year ago

      Left and Right rely on the orientation of the person. So if I’m looking ahead at you, and you’re looking at me, my left is different than yours. However, port and starboard don’t change based on position of the viewer but the position of the vessel. Cuts out any ambiguity.

      • snooggums@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Like driver’s side and passenger side on a car. It doesn’t even matter where it was made and it will work out as long as they look for the steering wheel.

        *Except the McLaren F1 and probably a few others.

      • XbSuper@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Still doesn’t seem necessary. Your orientation doesn’t matter if you always take the direction as if you were in the drivers seat (captains chair). It’s the same with cars, left side is drivers side, right side is passenger (unless you’re in one of those backwards countries, then left would be passenger, right would be driver, but it’s still the same side of the vehicle).

        • Stamets@startrek.websiteOP
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          1 year ago

          Your orientation doesn’t matter if you always take the direction as if you were in the drivers seat

          Correct. And you would refer to that as something specific because if you just said left people might think that you are talking about your personal left. So you come up with short hand to mean the left when facing the front of the ship, and right when facing the front of the ship. The words that were agreed upon for this purpose? Port and starboard.

    • 7lbmonkey@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Left and right are referenced to yourself, or relative. Port and starboard are referenced to the ship, or absolute.
      It’s the same reason people who work in theater say “stage right” and “stage left” instead of just “right” and “left.”
      Imagine being on a boat for weeks, in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight; it makes a lot of sense that you would think of locations in terms of the ship, as that is your only reference point.

    • Depress_Mode@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Historically, boats had rudders (or “steer boards”) along the side of the ship instead of in the middle like we’d see them today. It was always on the right side of the boat, so to avoid smashing your rudder into the dock, you’d dock your ship on the other side. That means it was always the left side that literally faced the port, while starboard faced out into open water to protect that side from damage.

    • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Also, port is red and Starboard is green. Usually boats will colour the sheets to match. It helps to identify the lines when someone tells you to ease the port sheet.