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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
We've been talking about Sailor Talk that have found their way to the land. It's probably time to talk about something more directly nautical. Let's start with "Port" and "Starboard".
In the days before the rudder was invented, the building of commercial vessels in England was heavily influenced by the dragon ships of the Vikings. These were lapstrake vessels (built with overlapping strakes, or planks), steered by an oar. The builder would fasten two pegs into the top strake of the boat, near the back. The oar would then be placed between the two pegs and secured with leather. The pegs were placed on the right side of the vessel since most sailors were right-handed. Sailors would brace themselves against the top strake on the left side of the boat when working the steering oar. The builders referred to the top strake on the right and left sides of the boat as the steering board ("starboard" in the language of the time) and leaning board ("larboard"), respectively. Sailors extended those terms to reference the right and left sides of the boat.
While boats were relatively small, there was no real difficulty in issuing a command to turn to starboard or larboard. By the 14th century, some boats were large enough that a mate might not be close to the helm. By the end of the 17th century, this was a significant difficulty. When the mate yelled "hard to larboard" in a storm or in the heat of battle, it's not hard to understand why the helm might be turned "hard to starboard" instead. When an alternate term was needed, one was available. Let's see how that alternate term came into use.
As fishermen and traders arrived in the harbor, they would tie up along the side of a roughly built stone landing. The left side of the boat was the preferred side for tying up, because they wanted to protect their steering oar and give it room to sweep from side to side when they were maneuvering close to the landing. Once tied, they would discharge and take on cargo.
To take on or discharge cargo, each piece had to be picked up and carried, or "ported" some distance to or from the warehouse area. The sides of the boats were higher than the deck to help keep sailors aboard in rough weather. To avoid lifting each piece of cargo up and over the side of the boat, builders constructed an opening in the left side of the hull, with its bottom being about level with the deck. This made it easier and faster for the sailors to port the individual pieces of cargo on and off the vessel. This opening (and, by extension, any opening in the hull of a boat) was known as a "port".
Since "port" activities took place on the left side of the boat, it was natural to begin referring to the left side of the boat as the port side. By the middle of the 18th century, this was the common practice. It took much longer for official practices to follow suit (1844 for the British Navy and 1846 for the U.S. Navy).
By the way, "coming in to port" originally meant coming in to open the port to discharge and take on cargo, and "being in port" meant that you were tied up ashore and in the process of porting cargo. In later years, "port" was applied to the destination as well.
While we're on the subject of being in port let's have a brief look at a shoreside term.
Have you boaters ever wondered why we get our nautical supplies at a chandlery? A maker and seller of candles was known as a chandler, and the place where candles were made and sold was a chandlery. How do we get from candles to nautical supplies?
Until whale oil became readily available in the early 18th century, candles provided the only illumination at night. Every boat consumed large amounts of candles on a voyage. To replace those consumed, the captain would have to visit the local chandlery while in port. Captains would want to spend the briefest of time ashore, since they were needed at the boat to supervise porting of cargo. A wise chandler would often stock other nautical goods, such as rope, leather and tar. Using chandlers that carried nautical supplies in addition to candles saved the captain a lot of time and trouble. Consequently, captains would prefer a chandler that carried additional supplies. Over time, captains came to look solely to chandlers as the source for their nautical supplies.
Returning to the ship, let's look at some sail terms related to port and starboard.
Most sailors are familiar with triangular sails. They are set such that the wind always blows across the sail in the same direction, namely from luff (leading edge) to the leach (trailing edge). In terms of the lower corners of a triangular sail, the wind goes from the tack (lower leading corner) to the clew (lower trailing corner).
Square sails and spinnakers are a bit different. The wind doesn't always come from the same edge. When the wind is coming from the left edge of the sail, the lower left corner is the tack. When the wind is from the right, the lower right corner is the tack. Thus, each square sail and spinnaker has a port tack and a starboard tack. Being on "port tack" or "starboard tack" in the old days literally meant that the ship was using the corresponding corner of her square sails, and "changing tacks" meant that the sails were being reset to use the opposite tack.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Next time, I'll write about "freezing the balls off a brass monkey" (no, that's not about an anatomically correct brass statue) and "beating a dead horse."
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