| | In the primitive days of navigation, the helmsman stood at the stern of the ship, controlling the vessel�s direction by hand with a rudder, which was on the right side and called a steer board, or as the Anglo- Saxons called it, a �starboard.� The left side of the ship is called the �port� side, because with the steering mechanism on the right it was the only side that could be brought to rest against a harbour or port. |