Sunday, November 3, 2024

Lighthouse of the Week, November 3 - 9, 2024: Horsburgh Lighthouse (Pulau Batu Puteh), Singapore

 

I looked at several candidate countries and lighthouses before choosing one for this week. It's owned by Singapore, and has an interesting look to it.

It's called the Horsburgh lighthouse, and it's located here.  Right smack in the middle of the entrance to the Singapore Strait, on the eastern side. It's on an island named Pedra Blanca ("white rock"), which apparently in Portuguese can also be Pedra Branca -- I checked -- and that's what Google Maps has.

There's some history here, according to the Lighthouse Directory.

"1851 (John Turnbull Thomson). Active; focal plane 31 m (102 ft); white flash every 10 s. 34 m (112 ft) round granite tower with lantern and gallery, attached to a 2-story concrete keeper's complex. Lighthouse painted with black and white horizontal bands. ... This lighthouse, Singapore's oldest, was named for James Horsburgh (1762-1836), the hydrographer of the East India Company who charted the seaways around Singapore. Following his death in 1836 British merchants in China quickly proposed that a memorial lighthouse be built at the Straits, but a decade passed before the site was selected and construction was authorized. The lighthouse stands on a notorious rock outcrop, long called Pedra Blanca ("white rock," batu puteh in Malay) by European navigators. The islet is about 40 km (25 mi) east of any other Singapore territory. In the late 1900s Malaysia maintained a claim to Pulau Batu Puteh on the grounds that the islet was historically under the control of the Sultan of Johor (Johor is now a state of Malaysia). Malaysia did not object to Singapore's continued operation of the lighthouse but sought sovereignty over the island. In 2003 Malaysia and Singapore agreed to refer their territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands. The case was argued in November 2007 and in May 2008 the court ruled in favor of Singapore."

 It's not gorgeous, because there are a lot of structures on that rock outcrop. See below.






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