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shatto
Dodge Dakota
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12/13/2006
01:01:10
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 Subject: Portholes
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At sea, left is 'Port' so, why are the windows on the right side of a ship.....port holes?
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99dakrt
Dodge Dakota
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12/13/2006
02:42:24
| RE: Portholes
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Good question. As a Merchant Marine I dont even have an answer to that question. I will ask all my buddys and see what kind of responce I get.
~Rob
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Forseti
Dodge Dakota
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12/13/2006
16:48:15
| RE: Portholes
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The word originated during the reign of Henry VI of England (1485). It seems the good king insisted on mounting guns too large for his ships and therefore the conventional methods of securing the weapons on the forecastle and aftcastle could not be used.
A French shipbuilder named James Baker was commissioned to solve the problem. And solve it he did by piercing the ship's sides so the cannon could be mounted inside the fore and after castles. Covers, gun ports, were fitted for heavy weather and when the cannon were not in use.
The French word "porte" meaning door, was used to designate the revolutionary invention. "Porte" was Anglicized to "Port" and later corrupted to porthole. Eventually, it came to mean any opening in a ship's side whether for cannon or not.
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