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<   No. 3981   2019-04-29   >

Comic #3981

1 Wendy: An' then there were that Portuguese colony town. Populated by settlers from Porto. Who made sweet fortified wine in the harbour.
2 Wendy: And belike insisted it be loaded only onto the left side o' ships.
3 Wendy: Where they had special dockin' connectors designed to be transferrin' the wine.
4 Long Tom: Port Ridiculous?
4 Wendy: Aye.

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The fact that the left side of a ship is called the "port" side, and that a place where ships dock is called a "port" is not a coincidence.

To quote Wikipedia: Port and starboard:

The term starboard derives from the Old English steorbord, meaning the side on which the ship is steered. Before ships had rudders on their centrelines, they were steered with a steering oar at the stern of the ship on the right hand side of the ship, because more people are right-handed. Since the steering oar was on the right side of the boat, it would tie up at the wharf on the other side. Hence the left side was called port. The Oxford English Dictionary cites port in this usage since 1543.

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