My understanding is that in the very early days of sail the steering oar had
to be moved to the side, so that the helmsman could see past the house.
Eventually they place a door (port) on the other side so that they did not
break the steering oar when docking. Hence Port side and Starboard side(they
did their steering by the stars). Since the guy at the helm could see better
to the right (starboard) the made rules saying that you yeild to the other
ship you could see. Right of way. England being a maritime nation brought
its sea law to shore when they got enough carage traffic to need it. Other
countries decided to put the driver on the left, but maintained the old sea
law of yeilding to the right. Left of way ,would make more sence ,since that
is the side we see first.
Gaile Baker's Brother Jack
(:-))
http://www.IslandNet.com:80/~baker/
http://www.efn.org/~msayer/
|