Re: MtMan-List: direction?

["Kurt Westenbarger" <kwesten@wyellowstone.com>]

I tried sending this once, I guess it didn't get through so if this is
double for you folks I apologize.  KW


Isn't it amazing (and wonderful) how such a simple question can raise so
much contoversy!  I was laying up
thinking about this last night (yes I need to get a life, or mayhap
better dreams) and wondered about Lewis &
Clark.  After all they wrote bunches about where they went.  Often they
refer to left & right as "larboard &
starboard" which refer to left & right sides of a water craft. (as I
understand it - been on the ocean twice and
never heard either term - so if I'm wrong please correct)  But they use
it in reference to the river banks such as a
river might enter upon the larboard side.  My question is:  do their
references to left and right change when they
change direction in relation to river flow.  Is larboard (their left)
when facing up the Missouri still their left when
going down the Columbia in 1805?  Is an object spotted on the larboard
side on the way up the Missouri still on
the larboard side while headed down?  And is the same true when they
refer to right and left instead of starboard
& larboard?

Just thought I'd throw this out and see if anyone wants the research
challenge and will report back.  Personally I
find the topic interesting but there's not enough spark to catch fire -
yet anyway.

Another brain fart:  I thought that when a ship entered harbor in the
early days (whenever that was) there was a
"pilot" or some such person who came out to the vessel to guide it in.
This implies (to me) an absence of
channel bouys.  If this is so (and I plainly admit I'm way over my head
when out on the ocean) when did
channel bouys come into common use in harbors, river mouths, and in
navigable rivers such as the
Mississippi?  I ask because the date may provde some insight into the
direction issue.

Snowin' here in West Yellowstone!  :-)
kurt