Port and starboard vessel's starboard side by green and its port side by red. Aircraft are lit in the same way. Port and starboard Port and starboard are nautical and aeronautical terms of orientation that deal unambiguously with the structure of vessels and aircraft. Their structures are largely bilaterally symmetrical, meaning they have mirror-image left and right halves if divided long-ways down the middle. One asymmetric feature is that on aircraft and ships where access is at the side, this access is usually only provided on the port side. To understand which is which, when a person is facing the bow on a
Ship Shoal Light Ship Shoal Light The Ship Shoal Light is a screw-pile lighthouse located in the Gulf of Mexico southwest of the Isles Dernieres off the coast of Louisiana. It is currently abandoned. Ship Shoal (known as Ship Island Shoal in early maps) is a bar running east-west in the open waters of the gulf. The Louisiana state legislature petitioned congress for a light to be erected on this hazard in 1848, but instead of a fixed tower, a lightship was provided instead. This vessel, the "Pleasonton", was named after Stephen Pleasonton, who was in charge of the lighthouse service at the