Fort Tanjong Katong
Encyclopedia
Fort Tanjong Katong, which stood from 1879 to 1901, was one of the oldest military forts built by the former British
colonial government
of Singapore
. The fort gave its name to today's Fort Road, and it used to stand on the grounds of the present Katong Park. Fort Tanjong Katong, the only one of its kind on the eastern side of the island, was part of a series of defensive batteries
and fortification
s along the southern coast of Singapore, that defended the eastern approaches to the Singapore Harbour
and Singapore Town
against seaborne attacks. Due to its poor structural design and remoteness, the fort was subsequently abandoned and buried until its rediscovery in 2001. Found with traces of a moat and near intact perimeter wall, the fort was considered by local archaeological experts as one of Singapore's most important archaeological finds of a "true 19-century fort" to date. As a result, an archaeology
group has been lobbying for the site to be gazetted as a National Monument
. As of May 2010, the National Heritage Board has stated that it has no plans to gazette the fort for the time being.
, who was the Colonial Engineer and Architect of the Singapore History Museum on Stamford Road
. The fort reflected the British concerns that other Europe
an powers such as the Netherlands
and Russia
, might attack the strategically located colony founded by Sir Stamford Raffles
of the British East India Company
in 1819. On the island of Sentosa
, Fort Siloso
, Fort Connaught and Fort Serapong were built around the same time as Fort Tanjong Katong, to guard the western and eastern entrances to the New Harbour (now Keppel Harbour
).
The fort was sitting atop a wet, low-lying coconut plantation and occupied an area of approximately two hectare
s, and had a small elevated battery of three 7 inches (177.8 mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns
facing the sea, along with bombproof shelters. The battery was surrounded by a ditch
measuring 100 feet wide on the flanks. A local team of contractors constructed the fort in less than 12 months. The fort's garrison
included members of the Singapore Volunteer Artillery (SVA) that held regular gun drills and their annual training camps at the fort. In 1885, works began on upgrading the existing gun batteries in Singapore, and the three-gun battery at Tanjong Katong was replaced with a pair of more powerful and longer range Mark VII 8 inches (203.2 mm) breech-loading guns.
Barely five years after upgrades were completed in 1888, it was suggested the fort be demolished. Debates over the fort lingered on between the Colonial Defence Committee in London
, and the Local Defence Committee in Singapore for nearly a decade. The fort was finally rendered obsolete and abandoned in 1901 when the guns were removed. Instead of destroying the fort, the British thought it simpler to bury it, which was done sometime after World War I
. A portion of a bastion was still visible above ground well into the 1960s, when a public park was built atop the fort for the fast-growing Katong suburbs. In the late 1960s, the bastion was finally buried when land reclamation in the East Coast took place, and its memory was soon forgotten in the ensuing decades.
Goh Chok Tong
, a Member of Parliament
for Marine Parade
Group Representation Constituency
, was the guest of honour at the event.
The long-awaited excavation began on 29 September 2004, led by a handful of archaeologists and dedicated archaeology volunteers called Southeast Asian Archaeology. Nearly 2 metres down, the volunteers uncovered significant remains of the fort still in situ
—a pair of infantry bastions that did not appear in the original plans, the perimeter of the moat
's inner escarpment and what appears to be the drawbridge
superstructure. Experts call it Singapore's only 'true fort'—one with protection all around—and it was considered one of Singapore's most important archaeological finds.
The archaeological dig at the former Fort Tanjong Katong site, provided a unique opportunity for many like-minded Singaporeans to participate actively in uncovering the remains of the old fort. For nearly 10 months, more than 1,000 volunteers ranging from school students to housewives, retirees, working professionals on their off-days assisted the archaeologists on site and discovering first hand on the 125-year old military fort.
The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, a natural history
research unit of the National University of Singapore, assisted with the analysis of marine artefacts and corals that were uncovered at the site, and some 36 bags of samples have been deposited with the museum for further analysis. A Preliminary Site Report (dated 7 May 2006) was later compiled and submitted to the relevant authorities which outlined the research process, preliminary findings, variety of volunteers, and a list of the archaeology research team involved.
, which runs the park, in order to protect them against the elements for future archaeologists to discover. It was also done because the dug-out pits could well breed mosquitoes; there were also fears that someone might fall into one of the 2 m-deep holes. The remaining funds, about S$150,000, were ploughed back into bursaries and scholarships for the constituency's students.
The archaeology group is lobbying for the site to be gazetted as a National Monument
, and to incorporate the fort remains to be featured as part of the park in future. To date, its status is still pending while waiting for the final decision by the Preservation of Monuments Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority
.
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
colonial government
Straits Settlements
The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia.Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under direct British control as a crown colony on 1 April 1867...
of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. The fort gave its name to today's Fort Road, and it used to stand on the grounds of the present Katong Park. Fort Tanjong Katong, the only one of its kind on the eastern side of the island, was part of a series of defensive batteries
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...
and fortification
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
s along the southern coast of Singapore, that defended the eastern approaches to the Singapore Harbour
Port of Singapore
The Port of Singapore refers to the collective facilities and terminals that conduct maritime trade handling functions in Singapore's harbours and which handle Singapore's shipping...
and Singapore Town
Downtown Core
The Downtown Core is a 266-hectare urban planning area in the south of the city-state of Singapore. The Downtown Core surrounds the mouth of the Singapore River and southeastern portion of its watershed, and is part of the Central Area, Singapore's central business district...
against seaborne attacks. Due to its poor structural design and remoteness, the fort was subsequently abandoned and buried until its rediscovery in 2001. Found with traces of a moat and near intact perimeter wall, the fort was considered by local archaeological experts as one of Singapore's most important archaeological finds of a "true 19-century fort" to date. As a result, an archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
group has been lobbying for the site to be gazetted as a National Monument
National Monuments of Singapore
National Monuments of Singapore are buildings and structures in Singapore that have been designated by the Preservation of Monuments Board as being of special historic, traditional, archaeological, architectural or artistic value....
. As of May 2010, the National Heritage Board has stated that it has no plans to gazette the fort for the time being.
History
Fort Tanjong Katong was designed and built in 1879 by Henry Edward McCallumHenry Edward McCallum
Sir Henry Edward McCallum colonial governor born Yeovil, Somersetshire, England and died in England....
, who was the Colonial Engineer and Architect of the Singapore History Museum on Stamford Road
Stamford Road
Stamford Road is a one-way road in Singapore within the planning areas of Downtown Core and Museum. The road continues after the traffic light junction of Nicoll Highway, Esplanade Drive and Raffles Avenue towards Orchard Road. It then ends at the junction of Fort Canning Road, Bencoolen Street...
. The fort reflected the British concerns that other Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an powers such as the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, might attack the strategically located colony founded by Sir Stamford Raffles
Stamford Raffles
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, FRS was a British statesman, best known for his founding of the city of Singapore . He is often described as the "Father of Singapore"...
of the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
in 1819. On the island of Sentosa
Sentosa
Sentosa, which translates to peace and tranquility in Malay , is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some five million people a year...
, Fort Siloso
Fort Siloso
Fort Siloso is the sole restored coastal gun battery from the twelve such batteries which made up "Fortress Singapore" at the start of World War II...
, Fort Connaught and Fort Serapong were built around the same time as Fort Tanjong Katong, to guard the western and eastern entrances to the New Harbour (now Keppel Harbour
Keppel Harbour
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...
).
The fort was sitting atop a wet, low-lying coconut plantation and occupied an area of approximately two hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s, and had a small elevated battery of three 7 inches (177.8 mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns
RML 7 inch gun
The RML 7 inch guns were various designs of medium-sized rifled muzzle-loading guns used to arm small-medium sized British warships in the late 19th century, and some were used ashore for coast defence.-Design and history:...
facing the sea, along with bombproof shelters. The battery was surrounded by a ditch
Ditch (fortification)
A ditch in military engineering is an obstacle, designed to slow down or break up an attacking force, while a trench is intended to provide cover to the defenders...
measuring 100 feet wide on the flanks. A local team of contractors constructed the fort in less than 12 months. The fort's garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
included members of the Singapore Volunteer Artillery (SVA) that held regular gun drills and their annual training camps at the fort. In 1885, works began on upgrading the existing gun batteries in Singapore, and the three-gun battery at Tanjong Katong was replaced with a pair of more powerful and longer range Mark VII 8 inches (203.2 mm) breech-loading guns.
"Wash-out Fort"
Beset by problems from the start, the Fort Tanjong Katong was nicknamed the "Wash-out Fort". Due to the soft ground, each time the guns were fired, the range finding equipment would shake, and would need to be recalibrated. To make matters worse, it was difficult to find the ammunition for the new 8 inches (203.2 mm) guns as it was not common in Singapore. The remoteness of the site, which hindered supply and reinforcement, reduced the effectiveness of Fort Tanjong Katong as a defensive position.Barely five years after upgrades were completed in 1888, it was suggested the fort be demolished. Debates over the fort lingered on between the Colonial Defence Committee in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and the Local Defence Committee in Singapore for nearly a decade. The fort was finally rendered obsolete and abandoned in 1901 when the guns were removed. Instead of destroying the fort, the British thought it simpler to bury it, which was done sometime after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. A portion of a bastion was still visible above ground well into the 1960s, when a public park was built atop the fort for the fast-growing Katong suburbs. In the late 1960s, the bastion was finally buried when land reclamation in the East Coast took place, and its memory was soon forgotten in the ensuing decades.
Rediscovery
In 2001, the outline of the top of the bastion wall became visible during a dry spell; this prompted a Katong resident, Jack Sim, to seek out the relevant authorities to investigate its origins. Despite much public discussion and interest generated by the discovery, it was not until in 2004 that the Singapore government finally approached a team of archaeologists to excavate the forgotten fort. The excavation was made possible by a community-based project named "Raising History, Planting Roots", that was initiated by the Mountbatten Citizens' Consultative Committee with local residents and schools as a community involvement program to encourage ownership of local heritage. In just four weeks, an amount of S$200,000 (US$120,000) was raised from corporate sponsors and a fund-raising dinner, held at Suntec City Mall on 27 September 2004. Senior MinisterSenior Minister
Senior Minister is a political office in the political system of Singapore taken by a prime minister or senior cabinet minister when he or she retires from that office, but still has something to offer the government based on his or her long experience...
Goh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong
Goh Chok Tong is the Senior Minister of Singapore and the chairman of the central bank of Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore. He also served as the second Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore from 28 November 1990 to 12 August 2004, succeeding Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime...
, a Member of Parliament
Members of the Singapore Parliament
The following is a historical list of members for the current and past ten Parliaments of Singapore:-See also:*1st Parliament of Singapore*2nd Parliament of Singapore*3rd Parliament of Singapore*4th Parliament of Singapore*5th Parliament of Singapore...
for Marine Parade
Marine Parade
Marine Parade is a town and an urban planning area in Singapore directly to the east of the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.-Location:...
Group Representation Constituency
Group Representation Constituency
A Group Representation Constituency is a type of electoral division or constituency in Singapore, the Members of Parliament of which are voted into Parliament as a group...
, was the guest of honour at the event.
The long-awaited excavation began on 29 September 2004, led by a handful of archaeologists and dedicated archaeology volunteers called Southeast Asian Archaeology. Nearly 2 metres down, the volunteers uncovered significant remains of the fort still in situ
In situ
In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...
—a pair of infantry bastions that did not appear in the original plans, the perimeter of the moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
's inner escarpment and what appears to be the drawbridge
Drawbridge
A drawbridge is a type of movable bridge typically associated with the entrance of a castle surrounded by a moat. The term is often used to describe all different types of movable bridges, like bascule bridges and lift bridges.-Castle drawbridges:...
superstructure. Experts call it Singapore's only 'true fort'—one with protection all around—and it was considered one of Singapore's most important archaeological finds.
The archaeological dig at the former Fort Tanjong Katong site, provided a unique opportunity for many like-minded Singaporeans to participate actively in uncovering the remains of the old fort. For nearly 10 months, more than 1,000 volunteers ranging from school students to housewives, retirees, working professionals on their off-days assisted the archaeologists on site and discovering first hand on the 125-year old military fort.
The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, a natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
research unit of the National University of Singapore, assisted with the analysis of marine artefacts and corals that were uncovered at the site, and some 36 bags of samples have been deposited with the museum for further analysis. A Preliminary Site Report (dated 7 May 2006) was later compiled and submitted to the relevant authorities which outlined the research process, preliminary findings, variety of volunteers, and a list of the archaeology research team involved.
Reburied again
To date, the excavation project at Fort Tanjong Katong has ended and only the south-eastern bastion, which was nearly fully excavated, has been cordoned off indefinitely (the south-western bastion was left untouched). Except for the cordoned off bastion, other exposed fort remains were reburied again in December 2005 by the National Parks BoardNational Parks Board
The National Parks Board is a statutory board of the Singapore Government.The National Parks Board is responsible for providing and enhancing the greenery of Singapore. NParks manages around 300 parks, the park connector network and the roadside greenery in Singapore...
, which runs the park, in order to protect them against the elements for future archaeologists to discover. It was also done because the dug-out pits could well breed mosquitoes; there were also fears that someone might fall into one of the 2 m-deep holes. The remaining funds, about S$150,000, were ploughed back into bursaries and scholarships for the constituency's students.
The archaeology group is lobbying for the site to be gazetted as a National Monument
National Monuments of Singapore
National Monuments of Singapore are buildings and structures in Singapore that have been designated by the Preservation of Monuments Board as being of special historic, traditional, archaeological, architectural or artistic value....
, and to incorporate the fort remains to be featured as part of the park in future. To date, its status is still pending while waiting for the final decision by the Preservation of Monuments Board and the Urban Redevelopment Authority
Urban Redevelopment Authority
The Urban Redevelopment Authority is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Singapore Government.-Mission:The authority was established on 1 April 1974, and is of especially critical importance to the city-state,...
.
See also
- Fort Pasir PanjangFort Pasir PanjangFort Pasir Panjang or Labrador Battery is located within the lush Labrador Park at the southern tip of Singapore island. It was one of the 11 coastal artillery forts built by the British in the 19th century to defend the western passageway into Keppel Harbour against piracy and foreign naval powers...
- Fort CanningFort CanningFort Canning is a small hill slightly more than 60 metres high in the southeast portion of the island city-state of Singapore, within the Central Area that forms Singapore's central business district...
- Fort Fullerton