Keppel Harbour (; ), also called the Keppel Channel and formerly New Harbour, is a stretch of water in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

between the mainland and the southern islands of

Pulau Brani Pulau Brani is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore, near Keppel Harbour. The island is situated between the main island of Singapore and the resort island of Sentosa, and is linked to the mainland via Brani Terminal Avenue. T ...

and

Sentosa Sentosa Island ( ), known mononymously as Sentosa, is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore's main island. The island is separated from the main island of Singapore by a channel of water, the Keppel Harbour, and is adjacent to ...

(formerly Pulau Blakang Mati). Its naturally sheltered and deep waters was to meet the requirements of

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

colonists A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among the first settli ...

attempting to establish a

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

maritime colony in that part of the world, thereby setting the stage for the eventual formation of

as a successful independent state.

Etymology and history

Keppel Harbour, by association with the rocky outcrop known as Batu Berlayar (and "Lot's Wife" in colonial times) has been speculated to be the site of

Long Ya Men Long Ya Men (; Malay: ''Batu Berlayar'') or Dragon's Teeth Gate, is the name Chinese explorer Wang Dayuan recorded for ''Batu Belayar'', a craggy granite outcrop that formerly stood at the gateway to Keppel Harbour in Singapore. In his descr ...

, one of two 14th-century settlements described by Chinese sojourner

Wang Dayuan Wang Dayuan (, fl. 1311–1350), courtesy name Huanzhang (), was a Chinese traveller from Jiangxi in the 14th century. He is known for his two major ship voyages. Wang Dayuan was born around 1311 at Hongzhou (present-day Nanchang). During 1328� ...

during his travels in Southeast Asia; it has not been systematically excavated to confirm this, however. In the modern period, the harbour was first noticed in August 1819 by

William Farquhar Major-General William Farquhar (26 February 1774 – 11 May 1839) was a Madras Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the resident of Malacca from 1803 to 1818 and the resident of Singapore from 1819 to 1823. Early life Far ...

, who reported his discovery of a "new harbour" inhabited by ''

orang laut The Orang Laut are several seafaring ethnic groups and tribes living around Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian Riau Islands. The Orang Laut are commonly identified as the Orang Seletar from the Straits of Johor, but the term may a ...

'' ("sea people", the indigenous ethnic group made up of various tribes of seafarers in and around the straits of singapore) living in boats to

Sir Stamford Raffles Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles (5 July 1781 – 5 July 1826) was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen between 1818 and 1824. Raffles ...

the following month. In the 1830s, the

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements () were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Company, the Straits Settlements came under control of the ...

, consisting of

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

and

Penang Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...

, was a pirates' haven. By 1832, Singapore had become the busy centre of government for the three areas. It was also at this time that Captain

Henry Keppel Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Keppel, (14 June 1809 – 17 January 1904) was a Royal Navy officer. His first command was largely spent off the coast of Spain, which was then in the midst of the First Carlist War. As commanding officer of the co ...

came to Singapore and helped to clear the Straits of

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

s. Whilst based at Singapore, he discovered the deep water anchorage that came to be called by his name. Keppel first sailed to Singapore as a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest Military rank#Subordinate/student officer, rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Royal Cana ...

in 1832 and took part in the Naning (

) expedition, and came again later in 1842 to help with the suppression of piracy in the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago is the archipelago between Mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, and is also called Insulindia or the Indo-Australian Archipelago. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race, later based ...

. Keppel had a long association with Singapore, having visited the island on several occasions up to 1903. He surveyed the new harbour of Singapore, which was formed based on his plans. The harbour was completed in 1886. In 1855, Captain William Cloughton, William Paterson and William Wemyss Ker purchased Pantai Chermin from

Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim Temenggong Tun Daeng Ibrahim bin Almarhum Temenggong Tun Daeng Abdul Rahman (8 December 1810 – 31 January 1862) was the Temenggong of Johor from 1841 to 1862. After he and Sultan Ali Iskandar Shah signed the 1855 treaty with the British G ...

, the

Temenggong of Johor The Temenggong of Johor was one of the members of the Orang Kaya Council established by Sultan Abdul Jalil Shah III of Johor, Abdul Jalil Shah of the Johor Sultanate. History The first Temenggong appointed was Temenggong Abdul Jamal in 1757. Th ...

. In 1859, Cloughton built the first

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

known as Number 1 Dock. In 1868, the second dock, Victoria Dock, was inaugurated by Sir Harry George Ord, Governor of the Straits Settlements. The Albert Dock was opened in 1879. Pulau Blakang Mati 1945 map

For a while, the harbour was simply known as New Harbour but it was renamed Keppel Harbour in honour of Admiral Keppel, who was instrumental in clearing the straits of pirates, by the Acting Governor, Sir

James Alexander Swettenham Sir James Alexander Swettenham (1846 – 19 April 1933) was a British colonial administrator who was Governor of British Guiana (1901–1904) and Governor of Jamaica (1904–1907). Early life Alexander was born the son of James Oldham Swette ...

, on 19 April 1900. New Harbour Road was also renamed Keppel Road. The Chinese names for Keppel Road and Keppel Harbour were ''sin kam kong chu u'' or "Kampong Bahru dock", and ''sek lat moi'' or "''selat'' passage" (''selat'' is Malay for

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

s).

Plans

Singapore's largest conglomerate, the Keppel Corporation, has announced plans to build exclusive

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

s on the 5.3

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

Keppel Island Keppel Island () is one of the Falkland Islands, lying between Saunders and Pebble islands, and near Golding Island to the north of West Falkland on Keppel Sound. It has an area of and its highest point, Mt. Keppel, is high. There is a wide ...

that it owns in Keppel Bay at Keppel Harbour — home to a

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

until 2000.Joyce Teo, "Keppel to build more waterfront homes", ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' (also known informally by its abbreviation ''ST'') is a Singaporean daily English-language newspaper owned by the SPH Media Trust. Established on 15 July 1845, it is the most-widely circulated newspaper in the country and ...

'', 22 November 2006 ≥ The group has launched a

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Daniel Libeskind Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect. He is known for the design a ...

, who is designing the masterplan for

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

ground zero A hypocenter or hypocentre (), also called ground zero or surface zero, is the point on the Earth's surface directly below a nuclear explosion, meteor air burst, or other mid-air explosion. In seismology, the hypocenter of an earthquake is its p ...

site. The 1,200-unit waterfront condominium — known as ''Keppel Bay phase two'' — was launched in early 2007. It sits on about 84,000 square metres of land on the mainland opposite Keppel Island, with a

shoreline A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

of 750 metres. It has six high-rise blocks and spacious low-rise

apartment An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement (Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that ...

s. The condominium is part of the Keppel Bay mega development, which is 70 per cent owned by Keppel Corp and 30 per cent by its unit Keppel Land. About 2,800 homes are set to be built, including the existing 969-unit ''Caribbean at Keppel Bay''. The most exclusive homes of the lot are reserved for Keppel Island, where the ''Marina@Keppel Bay'', a separate development, was completed in late 2007. The

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

will have high-end

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

s and tentative plans are for high-end villas and possible condominium units on the island. A 250-metre Keppel Bay Bridge, a

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

links Keppel Island to the mainland. Keppel also has two other smaller plots for condominium on the other side of the ''Caribbean''. Corals condominium is located beside ''Caribbean'', adjacent to the former site of King's Dock (the second largest dock in the world at the time after its opening on 26 August 1913NewspaperSG. (n.d.)
The King's Dock
The Straits Times, 27 August 1913, Page 10 ) with 366 units. One is 3.4 ha in size while the other, a joint venture with Mapletree, is 2.9 ha.

References

* Victor R Savage, Brenda S A Yeoh (2004), ''Toponymics - A Study of Singapore Street Names'', Eastern University Press, {{coord, 1, 16, N, 103, 50, E, region:SG_type:waterbody, display=title Ports and harbours of Singapore