Try this Link....look down the chart for Channel 16....then Channel 72.
Had you asked for some help re "local knowledge" on Channel 16 and asked any helper meet you on Channel 72....you would have gotten the help.
Whining on 16 is where you went wrong it would appear.
The USA does not have a monopoly on being the wrong way around.....as far more folks drive on the opposite side of the road than in the UK.
So before you sound off like yet another Colonel Blimp.....;think about the fact that even within the USA there are variances with the Red/Right/Returning Rule....depending upon where the Channel begins and whether it is part of the Inland Coastal Waterway (ICW).
Call up the maritime charts for the area around Morehead City, North Carolina....Cape Lookout....and Core Sound and examine the Channel Markings you can find there.
After all....our waters cover from the farthest tip of the Aleutian Islands clear down to the Caribbean and up to the tip of Maine.....a not inconsequential chunk of navigable water.
That does not include the Great Lakes alone....which dwarf UK waters.
Yes....I was the Captain/Master of a sea going vessel...before you ask.
https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=mtvhf