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
Container ship first coordinate is the "BAY", which starts at the front of the ship and increases aft. The second coordinate is "TIER", with the first tier at the bottom of the cargo holds, the second tier on top of that, and so forth. The third coordinate is the "ROW". Rows on the starboard side are given odd numbers and those on the port side are given even numbers. The rows nearest the centerline are given low numbers, and the numbers increase for slots further from the centerline. Container ships only take 20 foot, 40 foot, and 45 foot containers. 45 footers