port/starboard and left/right

[Lynne Murphy]

--On Wednesday, September 4, 2002 11:30 am +1000 "Prof. R. Sussex"
<sussex at UQ.EDU.AU> wrote:

> Commonwealth sea-borne transport, civil and military, still holds to
> port/starboard. American navy practice, if "Hunt for Red October"
> ("right full rudder") is any indication, goes for left/right. But a
> friend who served on the "Ticonderoga" tells me they were a strictly
> port/starboard operation. I don't know about the US merchant marine.
> I can't find a Seaspeak source on the web which lists international
> conventions.

I'll bet that HfRO only uses 'right/left' for the audience's benefit.  I'm
no expert on the navy, but certainly civillian sailors I know use
port/starboard.

Lynne



Dr M Lynne Murphy
Lecturer in Linguistics
Acting Director, MA Applied Linguistics

School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9QH
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