Pulau timbang

Pulau timbang
Pulau timbang
Waters	Sulu Lake
Geographical location	5 ° 46 ′  N , 117 ° 58 ′  E Coordinates: 5 ° 46 ′  N , 117 ° 58 ′  E
length	11 km
width	4.5 km
surface	33 km²
Highest elevation	Bukit Timbang 147  m
main place	Kg.tronglit

Timbang island is the Malaysian state of Sabah is part of the island at the western end of the Sulu Sea open Sandakan Bay .

description

Pulau Timbang is mostly densely forested. Its maximum length is approx. 11 km, the greatest width approx. 4.5 km. A narrow strait separates the island in the north from the mainland. In the northwest, an approximately 100 m wide strip of water, the Terusan Buli , delimits the island of Pulau Kabili . In the south of Pulau Timbang there is a ridge that rises up to 147 meters at Bukit Timbang . The island slopes gently to the north and turns into an extensive mangrove area.

There are four settlements on the island. The two main towns are Kg. Tronglit in the south and Kg. Baru Pulau Timbang in the northwest.

history

The island originally belonged to the territory of the Sultan of Sulu . In 1872 the Scottish adventurer William Clarke Cowie succeeds in breaking the Spanish naval blockade with his ship Far East in order to conduct an arms deal with the Sultan. Cowie convinced the grateful sultan that lasting success in overcoming the Spanish blockade was only guaranteed if he could fall back on a safe haven. There he could wait until the shipping route to Sulu was free of Spanish warships. The Sultan then gave Cowie permission to set up a transshipment depot for his goods on Pulau Timbang in Sandakan Bay on Borneo. This trading post was also known as kampung jerman because of its German settlers .

After Baron von Overbeck had obtained a concession for his colonial interests from the Sultan of Sulu in January 1878 with the help of Cowie and Alfred Dent , he left the 33-year-old British William B. Pryer on February 11, 1878 to secure his claim to the new one Territory in North Borneo at the old trading post on Pulau Timbang.

The island became the scene of a conflict between England and Spain in September 1878: on September 4th, the El Dorado , a Spanish gunboat , entered the port. Captain Lobe informed the British resident Pryer that he would hoist the Spanish flag as ordered. Pryer announced resistance and convinced the Suluk chief Nakoda Alee to position his warriors in full war gear in front of the houses. In view of the warlike presence, the Spaniards refrained from further hostilities and announced that they would return with reinforcements from Manila; a threat that was never carried out.

Kampung jerman was victim of a fire on June 15, 1879 and was completely destroyed. Pryer took this as an opportunity to move the settlement to its present location at the exit of Sandakan Bay.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Owen Rutter: British North Borneo - An Account of its History, Ressources and Native Tribes , Constable & Company Ltd, London, 1922
2. ↑ BORNEO: Sunset on the Sulu Sea in: Time Magazine, July 1, 1946 issue, accessed June 7, 2011
3. ↑ Albert CK Teo: Guide to Sandakan ( Memento from February 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 3.4 MB), Kota Kinabalu, 1990
4. ↑ Tregonning: A History of modern Sabah , Page 15 / North Borneo , page 50
5. ^ The Straits Times; The man who founded Sandakan  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Nov 13, 1954, p. 9  

Remarks

1. ↑ The values ​​were approximately determined by evaluating the satellite image from google maps.
2. ↑ The Spaniards had defeated the Sultan of Sulu and therefore claimed all the possessions belonging to the Sultanate of Sulu, including his possessions on Borneo, which he had ceded six months earlier.
3. ↑ The El Dorado was one of the ships that were sunk in the port of Manila in 1898 during the Spanish-American War .