A Board on which Stars are observed

I cannot say my left and right as fast as others do. I have been facing this problem as far as my memory can stretch. But when it becomes more complicated then I am really confused.

So, the question as to how does left and right become more complicated. The Indian Services are replete with Anglican terms left back by the British regime. According the floating services, port indicates the left of the floating vessel and starboard, the right of the floating vessel, when you are facing the front of the vessel. Hence, when I board a floating vessel and if I am told to go to the starboard side I should understand that I should go to the right side of the vessel. This increases the complexity for me.

For sometime now, I have been told that if we try to understand the actual meaning of words and facts then it will help us to keep the same in memory better. Going by this, I was thinking of finding out why exactly the terms starboard and port were coined, though I knew that such words were coined to maintain uniformity among the sailors. I couldn't go right away on this task as I had not befriended much of men onboard and those I knew couldn't give me a convincing answer. Recently, I had a quality inspector onboard a floating vessel with me who was also disturbed by the same question, though his objective was quench his thirst for knowledge. So, he without any hesitation asked a well ranked officer as to why right hand side should be called starboard and prompt came the answer. 

In olden days, people used to navigate in the seas observing the position of stars and this activity was carried on the right side of the vessel, which further went on to become starboard of thand so the terme vessel. The quality inspector was delighted and convinced, but I was not. I could not digest that stars would be observed from the right hand side of the vessel. But I argued that it was an answer from a ranked officer of the services.

I subdued the argument and searched the Internet. As always, Wikipedia starred as the first search result and the answer I got from them was not matching with what I have been told. I decided to take a second opinion and browsed at the other stars of the search. I hit upon the website of Royal Museums Greenwich which seconded Wiki's answer. You can read it for yourself at http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/facts/faqs/customs-and-origins/port-and-starboard

You may now ask me whether my confusion has been sorted out. Yes, the complexity of relating right to starboard and left to port has been evened out but the root problem of identifying left and right remains. And I believe, I will live with it my entire lifetime.