Starboard
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Starboard is the nautical term that refers to the right side of a vessel as perceived by a person on board the ship and facing the bow (front).
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[edit] Overview
Starboard refers to a particular and unchanging side of a ship, and thus is not a synonym for "right", a direction which is completely observer-dependent; for example, an observer on board who is facing the stern would perceive starboard to be on his left, not his right. The starboard side of a vessel is indicated with a green navigation light at night.
The origin of the term comes from old boating practices. Before ships had rudders on their centerline, they were steered by use of a specialized oar. This oar was held by a sailor located towards the stern (back) of the ship. However, like most of the rest of society, there were many more right-handed sailors than left-handed sailors. This meant that the right-handed sailors holding the steering oar (which had been broadened to provide better control) used to stand on the right side of the ship. The word starboard comes from Old English steorbord, literally meaning the side on which the ship is steered. The old English term steorbord descends from the Old Norse words stýri meaning “rudder” and borð meaning “side of a ship”. The modern term "steering wheel" comes from the same language root as "starboard" or "steer board".
Similarly, the term for the left side of the boat, port, is derived from the practice of sailors mooring on the left side (i.e., the larboard or loading side) as to prevent the steering boards from being crushed. Because the words larboard and starboard sounded too similar to be easily distinguished, larboard was changed to port.
The starboard side of most naval vessels the world over is designated the 'senior' side. The officers' gangway or sea ladder is shipped on this side and this side of the quarterdeck is reserved for the captain. The flag or pennant of the ship's captain or senior officer in command is generally hoist on the starboard yard.
[edit] Right-of-way for other vessels
Vessels at sea do not actually have any 'right of way' - they are, correctly, in the position of being 'stand on vessel' or 'give way' vessel. This means that at no time should any vessel actually navigate its way into a collision situation, and the rules are clear that no one in command of a vessel should assume a 'right of way' and should at all costs avoid a collision.
Consider two ships on courses that intersect. The rule is that the ship on the left must give way. The stand on vessel sees the green light on the starboard (right) side of the ship on the left. The give way vessel sees the red light on the port side of the stand on vessel. The helmsman gives way to a red light by either turning away and showing a stern light, or by going around the stern of the stand on vessel.
This was likely the beginning of the convention for traffic lights that use red to mean stop and green to mean go.
There are other rules governing which is a stand on vessel, such as small ships giving way to big ships, powered ships giving way to sailing ships, and in some circumstances vessels under sail giving way to powered vessels that are constrained by their draft, or restricted in their ability to maneuver. Therefore the green light does not mean an unqualified go, but rather it means proceed with caution subject to other rules applying. The earliest railway signals went red/green/white for stop/caution/go following this naval practice and were only later changed to the more familiar red/yellow/green.
The very simple application of red light and green light is that if the helmsman sees a red light, the helmsman should make sure that the other vessel can see his green light, which usually means giving way. If he sees a green light, he should stand on, but without getting into a collision situation.
The sailing rules that dictate that a sailing vessel on starboard tack (the side the wind is coming from) is the stand on vessel is as old as any other regulations. Likewise, if on the same tack, a sailing vessel that is upwind of another is the give way vessel. On square rigs, the business of tacking was called 'wearing ship' (something like a gybe), involved a huge loss of searoom, and could take ten minutes or more to complete.
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