ultramarin marine translations

ultramarin.online
	roer bakboord!		aanwijzing om 'bakboord roer' te geven. Op kleine boten of oude schepen werd hiervoor de helmstok, die vast aan het roerblad is verbonden naar stuurboord geduwt. Sinds de invoering van het stuurwiel hoeft het wiel in dezelfde richting worden gedraaid in die het roerblad zich zal bewegen. Hetzelfde geldt voor een joystick bij een hydraulische of elektrische roermachine. In het Engels zegt men nog steeds 'port the helm' (en in het Frans 'bâbord la barre') waarmee ook op boten zonder wiel maar met een helm of tiller niet de helmstok is bedoeld maar - net als in het Nederlands - het roerblad.
	Ruder backbord!		Anweisung, das Ruder auf die linke Seite zu legen, so daß das Schiff sich backbord wendet. (im Englischen heißt es 'helm', im Französischen 'barre', was dem deutschen 'Helm' entspricht und, technisch gesehen, verwirrend ist, denn um das Ruder nach backbord bzw. steuerbord zu legen muß der Helm (wie er auf kleineren oder traditionellen Segelbooten noch vorhanden ist) in die jeweils entgegengesetzt Richtung gelegt werden, als nach steuerbord bzw. backbord. Gemeint ist aber in jedem Fall, daß das Ruder so gelegt werden soll, daß das Schiff in die angegebenen Richtung fährt.)
	port the helm!		order upon which the helmsman puts the rudder to port. Technically speaking the rudder moves to the starboard side when the helm is put to port. At least this is so on vessels where there is a helm in the strict sense of the word, i.e. where the rudder blade is moved to either side by pushing a horizontal bar or tiller above deck. From this point of view this order might be a little confusing. In our days tillers are only to be found on small boats or on traditional ships or barges. Steering wheels or joysticks which are also called helm in a metaphoric sense are installed in such a way that turning the wheel counter-clockwise or pushing the joystick to the left makes the rudder blade move to the left and the ship to port.
	bâbord la barre!
	¡timón a babor!
	barra a sinistra!

	There is some doubt why moving the ship's tiller to the left has been called "porting the helm." The usual explanation recalls the time when ships carried a steering-oar on the starboard quarter and therefore, in landing, turned the left side toward the quay or wharf. The left side is said to have become the port side because it was next to the town or "port" or because the opening or "port" for loading cargo had to be on the left. Port the helm is then attributed to the earlier use of port for "the left side of the ship". This explanation, although it cannot be discredited, overlooks other meaning of the verb port and their relation to steering. Early Germanic ships where steered by an oar or paddle worked over the starboard quarter. Hence the right side of the ship came to be called in Old English the steorbord or "steering side." Since the steersman had to turn his back, more or less, to the left side, that side was called the bacbord. Steorbord remains in modern English as starboard, but, except in isolated dialectical use, bacbord has been replaced. At least by the end of the fourteenth century laddeborde (MnE larboard, probably in analogy with sterbord, starbord) had come into use. Ladde- is usually traced to Old English hladan "to load" or "to put cargo on board a ship," which, because of the steering-oar on the starboard quarter, would have been next to the dock. Larboard has not disappeared, but is has generally been replaced by port.
	taken from W.P.Albrecht, Port the helm, in: Modern Language Notes, 1959