Fort Canning Lighthouse also known as Fort Canning Light is located on top of

Fort Canning Hill Fort Canning Hill, formerly Government Hill, Singapore Hill and Bukit Larangan (''Forbidden Hill'' in Malay), is a small hill, about high, in the southeast portion of the island city-state of Singapore, within the Central Area that forms Si ...

and was formerly one of the 13 important lighthouses in the Straits of Malacca. Located nearby with The Flagstaff and the Time Ball, the three navigation structures played an essential role during the early maritime history of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

History

, with its strategic location overlooking the Singapore Harbour, was used as a communication centre after the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

established port here in 1819. The first communication facility built on the hill was a flagstaff. The flagstaff was used to display the arrival, identity, location and status of ships entering Singapore Harbour. This was followed by a

time ball A time ball or timeball is a time-signalling device. It consists of a large, painted wooden or metal ball that is dropped at a predetermined time, principally to enable navigators aboard ships offshore to verify the setting of their marine chron ...

, a lighthouse and a

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

office in later years.

Construction

Fort Canning Lighthouse was built on the southern side of Fort Canning Hill to guide ships safely towards the Singapore Harbour. The first signal light on Fort Canning was a simple lantern attached to the top of the Flagstaff in 1855. The Flagstaff light was replaced by the Lighthouse in 1903 by Riley, Hargreaves & Co., who in 1909 combined with another company to form United Engineers that is still present to this day at nearby

River Valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ...

. The light was created by a burner fuelled by kerosene, which generated 20,000

candlepower Candlepower (abbreviated as cp or CP) is a unit of measurement for luminous intensity. It expresses levels of light intensity relative to the light emitted by a candle of specific size and constituents. The historical candlepower is equal to 0.981 ...

and itself was

dioptric Dioptrics is the branch of optics dealing with refraction, similarly the branch dealing with mirrors is known as catoptrics. Dioptrics is the study of the refraction of light, especially by lenses. Telescopes that create their image with an objec ...

occulting type. The light was "eclipsed" (darkened) every 17 seconds by lowering a metal cylinder around the burner for 3 seconds, thus giving rise to the term "occulting type".National Heritage Board, "The Lighthouse" (On-site information board). Though the Lighthouse survived the destruction of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, it was finally closed and dismantled in December 1958, when new tall buildings were making it invisible from the sea. It was replaced by a new signal light using electricity that was erected on top of the

Fullerton Building The Fullerton Hotel Singapore is a five-star luxury hotel located near the mouth of the Singapore River, in the Downtown Core of the Central Area, Singapore. It was originally known as the Fullerton Building, and also as the General Post Offi ...

. The Fullerton Light was itself taken down in 1979 and is now in the Maritime Museum of Singapore.

The Lighthouse today

Due to its historic significance, a replica of the Lighthouse was later erected near its original site by the

government of Singapore The Government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of Singapore to mean the executive branch of the state, which is made up of the president and the Cabinet. Although the president acts in their personal discretion in the exercise ...

. Though its lights are fully functional, it no longer serves its original purpose but stands today as a legacy of its contribution to Singapore maritime history.

Gallery

File:Fort Canning Hill-1902.jpg, In the background shows the original lighthouse (left), together with the Flagstaff and the Time Ball on Fort Canning Hill, circa 1902 File:Fort Canning-Flagstaff.jpg, The Flagstaff, one of the three early navigation structures on Fort Canning Hill

References

External links