Horsburgh Lighthouse
| Horsburgh Lighthouse | ||
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| Place: |
 Singapore , Pedra Branca
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| Location: | South East , Singapore | |
| Geographical location: | 1 ° 19 '49 .1 " N , 104 ° 24' 19.1" E | |
| Fire carrier height : | 34 m | |
| Fire height : | 31 m | |
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| Identifier : | Fl.W.10s | |
| Operating mode: | Solar energy | |
| Construction time: | 1850-1851 | |
| Operating time: | since October 15, 1851 | |
| International ordinal number: | F 1820 | |
Horsburgh Lighthouse is a lighthouse ( English Lighthouse ) on Pedra Branca , a small rocky island in the transition from the South China Sea to the Straits of Singapore . In operation since October 15, 1851, it is the oldest lighthouse in Singapore .
prehistory
The sea area around Pedra Branca was notorious for its reefs for centuries and was first described in 1583 by the Dutch explorer Jan Huygen van Linschoten . Between 1824 and 1851 alone 16 ships were lost and the high number of landings also attracted pirates . At a meeting in Canton (today Guangzhou ) it was decided on November 22nd, 1836 to increase the safety in this sea area by adding a lighthouse and naming it after James Horsburgh , a Scottish hydrograph of the British East India Company .
By April 1842, merchants , captains and nautical officers had donated over 5,500 Spanish dollars for the construction of the lighthouse . Two years later, the governor of the Straits Settlement commissioned explorations, the results of which were submitted to the Admiralty for decision in November 1844 by John Turnbull Thomson . Contrary to his proposal to build the lighthouse on Peak Rock, the Admiralty decided on Pedra Branca in April 1846.
Before the start of the northeast monsoon , Thomson brought various masonry bricks to Pedra Branca on November 1, 1847 to test their resistance to the swell . On his return to the island on March 1, 1848, he discovered that bricks had washed away on the north side. This result led to the decision to build the outer walls of the tower from granite .
construction time
In early 1850, during the monsoons, Thomson began building preparations. For the selection of the beacon and its construction supervision, he hired Alan Stevenson , an engineer on the Northern Lighthouse Board . The contract for the actual structure went to a Chinese entrepreneur. The original idea of using the granite from Pedra Branca failed because not enough stonemasons could be found for the work on the uninhabited rock island. Thomson therefore chose Pulau Ubin , where the workers could cut the granite and prepare it for transport to the construction site.
After several attempts to bring enough material to the island, construction work on Pedra Branca could begin on April 12, 1850. The foundation stone was laid on May 24th, Queen Victoria's birthday . Before the renewed onset of the northeast monsoon, the island was abandoned on October 21, 1850 by Thomson and his construction workers. The work on Pulau Ubin and the main island continued.
At the end of March 1851, the team returned to the island and was able to complete the tower by mid-June. The lantern house and lighthouse reached Pedra Branca on August 27th and on September 21st, 1851 the lighthouse was operational. After a visit by the governor and numerous guests, the beacon was lit for the first time on September 27th and has been in permanent operation since October 15, 1851. The cost of construction was 23,665 Spanish dollars, of which 7,411 Spanish dollars were donated. The remaining costs were covered by the government.
Modernizations
After it went into operation, the lighthouse has been modernized and expanded several times. In 1887 a Fresnel lens was installed in an elevated lantern house and the original argand burner was replaced by a kerosene lamp in 1930 . In 1947 an additional residential building was built around the tower for the beacon keepers and in 1959 the station was equipped with a circular beacon . The beacon was electrified in 1966 and in 1988 it was converted to solar energy and automated. A year later, a radar tower was built to monitor shipping traffic and in 1992 the small island was given a helipad for maintenance personnel.
The identification of the beacon consists of a white flash with a return of ten seconds (Fl.W.10s). Due to its importance, the tower is also equipped with a radar beacon and an automatic identification system .
See also
Web links
- Russ Rowlett: Lighthouses of Singapore ( English ) In: The Lighthouse Directory . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Retrieved November 20, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Koh Qi Rui Vincent and Valerie Chew: Horsburgh Lighthouse. National Library Board Singapore, 2014, accessed November 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Photo of the lighthouse from 2012. Lightphotos.net, May 16, 2012, accessed on November 20, 2016 (English).
- ^ List of Lights, Pub. 112, Western Pacific and Indian Oceans Including the Persian Gulf and Red Sea (PDF) (= List of Lights ), United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency , 2016, p. 383.