It is located on the tiny island of Pulau Satumu, which is ringed by stupendously rich reefs.
There was a flurry of articles today about the very lucky (to us) people who work at the lighthouse on Pulau Satumu.
As part of Singapore Maritime Week, an exhibition “From Lighthouses to Electronic Charts: An Exhibition” will be held at VivoCity, Central Court A, from Friday to Sunday, 10am to 9.30pm. The exhibits include models of lighthouses and a life-size buoy used to mark sunken wrecks.
Here's some titbits about Raffles Lighthouse from the media articles
Raffles Lighthouse is our second oldest and was built in 1855. Horsburgh Lighthouse on Pedra Branca is our oldest and was built four years earlier.
Raffles Lighthouse stands on the southernmost island of Singapore and it marks the point where ships coming out of Singapore Strait should start turning right into Malacca Strait.
MPA says "In spite of technological advances, lighthouses are still crucial in ensuring navigational safety".
Singapore has five lighthouses- Horsburgh Lighthouse on Pedra Branca
- Raffles Lighthouse on Pulau Satumu
- A lighthouse on Sultan Shoal in the western anchorage of Singapore
- And another at Pulau Pisang on the island of the same name in Malaysia.
- Bedok Lighthouse is located on mainland Singapore, on top of Laguna View condominium, it is not manned by keepers.
TC shares a lot more history about Raffles Lighthouse, such as: it was designed by the same person who built St Andrew's Cathedral on our mainland and the granite to build the lighthouse came from Pulau Ubin! He has lots more interesting stories in his blog entry, with photos of the interior of the lighthouse.
Marine life at Raffles Lighthouse is just stunning! The Blue Water Volunteers just conducted a reef survey there last weekend on 11 Oct. With so much to do due to the diversity of corals that Chay Hoon didn't have time to take many photos. But HBing shares video clips of anemonefish and sweetlips and other photos during that dive.
Some of us get a rare chance to make intertidal trips there and here's what Kok Sheng shared about the marine life and hard corals there during a trip this year. My last visit there was last year with wildfilms.
The lighthouse keepers were really nice people. During one of my visits there, they shared that they saw a sea turtle coming onto the shore of their tiny lagoon.
More links
- Recent blog entries about Raffles Lighthouse
- Photos of Raffles Lighthouse corals and marine life on wildsingapore flickr
- Recent articles on Pulau Pisang
- Rediscovering Pulau Pisang, a floating orchard
Satiman Jamin, New Straits Times 13 Jun 08; - Malaysia keen to take over running of island lighthouse
Singapore manages the Pulau Pisang structure under an 1885 agreement
Carolyn Hong, Straits Times 11 Jun 08; - Malaysia to examine status of Pulau Pisang
Straits Times 10 Jun 08; - Smuggler alert at Pulau Pisang
Today Online 3 Jun 08; - KL govt told: Make sure two other islands don't fall to Singapore
Straits Times 27 May 08;
- Rediscovering Pulau Pisang, a floating orchard
