use only berth, Miss Beth! a berth is the space at the pier for a ship to dock or anchor.

here's a definition of berth:
(1) A loading or discharging anchorage allowing a ship to go alongside. (2) This may also apply to a cabin in a ship. Various types of berths are presented as under: (i) Double Berth: 1. Berth alongside another ship. On this berth the ship aware another berth before she starts loading and/or discharging unless operation is done by lighters. 2. Cabin of a ship with double berth or two beds: ii) Foul Berth: As entourage which is dangerous due to the possibility of hitting the ground or other vessel or due to an obstruction that impedes the safety of the vessel while in its berth. iii) Ramped Cargo Berth: A berth facility for drive on drive off or roll on roll off ships. iv) Safe Berth: A berth with an access which is safe to navigation. During its stay the ship must not lie on the bottom of the berth as it is enforced in charter parties. However, in the charter parties sometimes it is admissible for the ship to touch soft ground. (v) Tidal Berth: Berths located in tidal harbours commonly used by coasters and small tankers. Also known as Mud Berths.


And just in case, I think there is reason in your text to use the word 'dock':

An American dock has come to mean a pier or wharf, a structure alongside which ships tie up for loading and unloading, although there may be a dock, tiny by comparison, for a rowboat at a summer cottage too. A British dock is a walled-in basin in which ships shelter behind gates while they load, unload, or get repairs. Americans still use a version of that sense in the terms dry dock and graving dock. The latter is a permanent structure made of stone or concrete that can be pumped dry so that work can be done on a ship’s hull. A dry dock has a similar purpose but is frequently a floating affair that is sunk to admit the ship to be repaired and then floated again to get the ship high and dry. To put a ship in (into) dry dock is to dry-dock it, spelled as one hyphenated word. Piers are columns and hence are also shore structures that thrust out into the water, supported by piers. An American wharf is usually large and may be built along the shore, rather than thrust far out into the water like a pier. The important usage observation is that American landlubbers (and others too) use all three terms almost interchangeably.

Another choice:

quay: a structure built parallel to the bank of a waterway for use as a landing place (Merriam-Webster)

berth: the place where a ship lies when at anchor or at a wharf

Wharf: a structure built along or at an angle from the shore of navigable waters so that ships may lie alongside to receive and discharge cargo and passengers

dock: a place (as a wharf or platform) for the loading or unloading of materials

Perhaps more descriptive than the German, but some more choices.

I would tend to say the ship was tied up along the dock to starboard.