Quote:
Originally Posted by Quexos
What bothers me are mistakes that should be easily avoided and such mistakes happen often in movies. e.g. in James Cameron's Titanic when they try to avoid the iceberg by steering the ship to the left and the guy screams starboard which is "right" when he should have said "port".
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It is my understanding that there is no mistake in the movie with regards to this scene.
Ships used to be steered by tiller and therefore steering directions seem "backwards". ie: if the master of the boat said "hard a port" that meant "turn the tiller to port so the boat will turn to starboard" and vice versa for "hard a starboard". After the steering wheel was introduced to ships things changed in that turning the wheel to port would make the boat turn to port and vice versa.
Here's where it gets tricky.........at the time of the Titanic disaster, orders for steering were still given in accordance with the old tradition. Therefore when the guy screams "hard a starboard" this means "turn the damn ship to port(
left) or we are screwed to the sh!thouse!". Therefore the guy in the wheel house starts spinning the wheel counter clockwise which will turn the ship to port.