Mission Log #001

Why do sailors say “starboard”?

This is one of those sailing terms that has been floating around for more than a thousand years.

Long before ships had rudders in the middle, sailors steered using a large steering oar mounted on the right side of the vessel.

Most people were right-handed, so placing the steering oar on the right side made perfect sense.

The Old English word for steering was “steor”, and a side of a ship was called “bord.”

Put them together:

Which literally meant:

Over centuries, steorbord evolved into the modern word:

But why isn’t the other side called “left”?

That is where it gets even more interesting.

Since ships were steered from the right side, they would usually tie up to docks using the opposite side to avoid damaging the steering oar.

That side became known as the larboard side, or the loading side.

Unfortunately, larboard and starboard sounded too similar when shouted during storms.

So in the 1800s, the term port became the safer standard, because that side faced the port when docking.

Fun Vurbie Fact

If Vurbie had been born a thousand years ago, he probably would not have said:

He would have said:

And then immediately gotten distracted by an interesting fish. 🐙