Editing Watercraft (section)

==Terminology==
In real life history, the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_and_starboard terms for the left and right side] of a boat (when standing on it and facing the front) actually changed over the centuries. The ''A Song of Ice & Fire'' novels use the terms "port" and "larboard" interchangeably to refer to the left side of a ship - but "port" only started being used in real life during the Renaissance. 

Before ships had rudders, they were maneuvered using a steering oar - which tended to be on the right side of the ship, because most people are right-handed. In Old English "board" meant "side", thus the "steering oar side" was "steer-board", which slurred to "Starboard". 

Because the steer oar on the right side needed to be in the water, it was the left side that was pulled up against a port dock for loading and unloading a boat. Prior to around 1300, the left side was called "back-board" - because it was behind whoever was manning the steering oar. After 1300 the name shifted to being called "load-board" because it was the side the ship was loaded on while pulled against a dock. "Load-board" eventually slurred to "Larboard". 

Around the late 1500s, however, the alternative term "Port-side" (or just "Port") started being used - again referring to the fact that the left side of a boat is the one pulled up to face a "port" while the  crew "load" cargo onto it. The two terms overlapped for some time in subsequent centuries but in the mid-1800s both the British and U.S. navies officially ordered that "port" be used instead of "larboard" - because "larboard" sounds similar enough to "starboard" that they might be misheard.