this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
770 points (99.0% liked)

Funny: Home of the Haha

5692 readers
455 users here now

Welcome to /c/funny, a place for all your humorous and amusing content.

Looking for mods! Send an application to Stamets!

Our Rules:

  1. Keep it civil. We're all people here. Be respectful to one another.

  2. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry. I should not need to explain this one.

  3. Try not to repost anything posted within the past month. Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.

Other Communities:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Anticorp@lemmy.world
770
Actually had one of these on my boat when I was growing up. Vital piece of tech. (startrek.website)
submitted 1 year ago by Stamets@startrek.website to c/funny@lemmy.world
76 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Depress_Mode@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] Vent@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

TIL about steer boards, thanks!

medieval ships, lots of which have steer boards

[–] jarfil@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

rudders (or “steer boards”)

The "board" part comes from "side of a ship", as in "the board where the steer is attached".

Same meaning as in "going over-board".

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Port used to be larboard. I'm sure that wasn't at all confusing.

[–] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

whaat.

This makes so much sense.