Everything about Keppel Harbour totally explained
Keppel Harbour is a stretch of water in
Singapore between the mainland and the southern islands of
Pulau Brani and
Sentosa. Its naturally sheltered and deep waters was to meet the requirements of
British colonists attempting to establish a
Far East maritime colony in that part of the world, and thereby setting the stage for the eventual formation of
Singapore as a successful independent state.
Etymology and history
The harbour was first noticed in August 1819 by
William Farquhar, who reported his discovery of a "new harbour" inhabited by
orang laut (sea Gypsies) living in boats to
Sir Stamford Raffles the following month.
In the 1830s, the
Straits Settlements, consisting of
Singapore,
Malacca and
Penang, was a
pirates' . By 1832, Singapore had become the busy centre of government for the three areas.
It was also at this time that Captain
Henry Keppel came to Singapore and helped to clear the Straits of
pirates. Whilst based at Singapore, he discovered the deep water anchorage that came to be called by his name. Keppel first sailed to Singapore as a
midshipman in 1832 and took part in the Naning (
Malacca) expedition, and came again later in 1842 to help with the suppression of piracy in the
Malay Archipelago. Keppel had a long association with Singapore, having visited the island on several occasions up to 1903. He
surveyed the new harbour of Singapore, which was formed based on his plans. The harbour was completed in 1886.
In 1855, Captain William Cloughton, William Paterson and William Wemyss Ker purchased Pantai Chermin from the
Temenggong of Johor. In 1859, Cloughton built the first
dry dock known as Number 1 Dock. In 1868, the second dock, Victoria Dock, was inaugurated by
Sir Harry George Ord,
Governor of the Straits Settlements. The Albert Dock was opened in 1879.
For a while, the harbour was simply known as New Harbour but it was renamed Keppel Harbour by the Acting Governor,
Sir Alexander Swettenham, on
19 April 1900 when Admiral Keppel visited Singapore at the age of 92.
New Harbour Road was also renamed
Keppel Road. This reportedly pleased Admiral Keppel very much. The
Chinese names for Keppel Road and Keppel Harbour were
sin kam kong chu u or "Kampong Bahru dock", and
sek lat moi or "
selat passage" (
selat is
Malay for
straits).
Future plans
Singapore's largest
conglomerate, the
Keppel group, has announced plans to build exclusive
villas on the 5.3
hectare Keppel Island that it owns in
Keppel Bay at Keppel Harbour — home to a
shipyard until
2000.
The group will also launch a
condominium designed by renowned
architect Daniel Libeskind, who is designing the masterplan for
New York's
ground zero site. The 1,200-unit waterfront condominium — known as
Keppel Bay phase two — will be launched in early
2007. It will sit on about 84,000
square metres of land on the mainland opposite Keppel Island, with a
shoreline of 750 metres. It will have six high-rise blocks and some spacious low-rise
apartments.
The condominium will be part of the 4.86 million
square feet Keppel Bay mega development, which is 70 per cent owned by
Keppel Corp and 30 per cent by its unit
Keppel Land. About 2,800 homes are set to be built, including the existing 969-unit
Caribbean at Keppel Bay.
The most exclusive homes of the lot are likely to be reserved for Keppel Island, where the
Marina@Keppel Bay, a separate development, will be completed by late 2007. The
marina will have high-end
restaurants and tentative plans are for high-end villas and possible condominium units on the island.
A 245 metre
cable-stayed bridge, to be completed by the first quarter of 2007, will link Keppel Island to the mainland.
Keppel also has two other smaller plots for condominium on the other side of the
Caribbean. One is 3.4 ha in size while the other, a joint venture with
Mapletree, is 2.9 ha.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Keppel Harbour'.
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