Wigan Album

A fitting play on words DTease, and I hope yon tiller man had managed to steer the boat 'to Port' in time; The way things seem to have been going are that he was about to scuttle the lily pads and overhanging tree.
"Hard to Port."
"Hard to Port, Sir."

Not being a Boatman myself I wonder which side would two boats pass on the Canal, port or starboard?

Philip G - he's on the right track. The advice on canals is to approach a bend on the assumption that another boat will be meeting you there - so you keep to the outside of the bend until the latest moment. That leaves any approaching boat the room to manoeuvre to pass port-to-port (the rule of the road on all waters internationally), Also, on canals, the action of the rudder as you turn causes the flow from the propeller to push the silt in the water into the inside of the bend. The eventual build-up of silt can leave the inside of bends very shallow - risking a grounding.

Many thanks for having put me on the right track Rev. Long. And further thanks for having done so with economy - I love a secure middle register. The last two lines of my previous post were given as decoration for the former, and were from the 1969 BBC Alba film The Northern Lights, which I'd seen earlier this year. Unfortunately for me - and much to your credit -, a second viewing ('this morning') of that particular scene revealed that the Pilot had said "Hard to starboard".