The thick glass pane of a porthole window in a cruise ship room allows for the sleeping family within to get a good night’s rest, even as the violent storm rages just outside. In another part of the ship, the rooms of crewmembers and staff have the sturdy porthole windows. The sealing around the edge of a porthole window is perhaps the strongest on the boat, and it never allows water in while the glass pane wards off cold. A voyage across the ocean can be icy, and the proper installment of portholes can be a key factor in the success of the journey. Because the porthole is so adaptable an item, many have replaced the average window in a seaside home. For many, the porthole window serves as more than just a window, but also as a reminder of the ocean and it’s wild nature.

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A porthole is often put at the very top portion of a home, and replaces many a small attic window with ease. In places where windows are needed but not required to be large, such as a garage, a porthole window takes center stage. Regular rectangular windows were seen as impractical for a boat, and as such portholes were invented. While actual windows were scarce on the ship and reserved mostly for upper deck cabins, portholes were used widely and came in a great variety of shapes and sizes. When referring to a porthole in documents of a federal or ship building nature, the porthole is called a ‘side scuttle’. Many ship builders used this name in olden times for portholes, as it described their function more accurately. The porthole’s name is not indicative of its position along the hull of a boat - portholes can be found on both starboard and port sides of the ship. The name may have originated from the fact that many portholes were made by hand in the older days, and as such it was easier to install them on the portside than it was on starboard.

Two parts make up the porthole, the glass pane that is normally quite thick, and the sturdy metal frame used to attach it to the boat. Sealing the glass to the metal was quite the task in earlier years, and everything from sap to lacquer was used. Sealing was perhaps the most important part of the porthole’s design as well, as water had to be stopped from getting in the boat. While in production, a porthole’s pane and rim are melded with almost no chance of breakage by machines.

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Today, brass and bronze rims are considered the absolute best metal to use when constructing a rim, but often another metal is used, plating it with brass. Brass and bronze are favored mostly for their incredible resistance to sea salt corrosion and rust resisting properties. Panes of portholes vary in width, but a good rule-of-thumb is considered anywhere from two to three inches, with very extreme cases having panes over four inches.

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