btm said:

captain_spalding said:

party_pants said:

Old English terms were Larboard (loading side) and Starboard (steering side, where the steering oar was mounted before rudders). The Royal navy did not officially change until the 1840s.

Even more weird:

The shift to turning a ship’s wheel in the exact direction you want the vessel to travel happened in the 1930s.

Before this change, helm orders and wheel movements followed the legacy of the physical tiller. Pushing a tiller to the right (starboard) moves the rudder to the left, which swings the ship’s bow to the left (port). Early ship wheels mimicked this reverse logic, meaning a helmsman had to turn the wheel the opposite way of the intended turn.

Before this change, orders like “hard-a-starboard” meant moving the tiller to starboard, which turned the ship to port. The wheel had to be turned counter-intuitive ways depending on the cable rigging.

In 1929, an international convention proposed standardizing direct helm orders. Countries then officially updated their steering rules. The United States changed the standard in 1935, and British ships officially adopted direct wheel steering in 1934.

So that scene in Titanic where the first mate calls “Hard to port” and the helmsman wrenches the wheel to right is actually correct.

It would seem so.