Pedra Branca, Singapore
Pedra Branca, also known as Batu Putih, is an outlying island and the easternmost point of Singapore. The name of the island, which is Portuguese for "white rock", refers to whitish guano deposited on the rock. The island consists of a small outcrop of granite rocks with an area of about at low tide. During the low water spring tide it measures, at its longest, and has an average width of. Pedra Branca is situated at, where the Singapore Strait meets the South China Sea, and so is considered a maritime landmark of the eastern entrance of the Singapore Strait.
There are two maritime features near Pedra Branca. Middle Rocks, under the sovereignty of Malaysia, consists of two clusters of small rocks about apart situated south of Pedra Branca. South Ledge, which is to the south-south-west of Pedra Branca, is a rock formation visible only at low-tide.
Pedra Branca was known to sailors for centuries. It was originally within the territory of the Johor Sultanate, which was founded in 1528, and remained under the new Sultanate of Johor while under the British sphere of influence following the signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Between 1850 and 1851, the British built Horsburgh Lighthouse on the island without seeking the consent of the Johor authorities or informing them of the decision. From that time, the Straits Settlements administered the island; Singapore then assumed responsibility in 1946 after the dissolution of the Straits Settlements. On 21 September 1953, the Acting State Secretary of Johor, responding to a query from the Colonial Secretary of Singapore about the status of the island, stated that "the Johore Government does not claim ownership of Pedra Branca".
On 21 December 1979, Malaysia published a map that showed the island to be within its territorial waters. This ignited a 29-year territorial dispute which, together with the issue of sovereignty over the nearby maritime features of Middle Rocks and South Ledge, the disputants presented to the International Court of Justice for resolution. On 23 May 2008, the ICJ ruled that Pedra Branca was under Singapore's sovereignty. At this point, the ICJ also noted Singapore's plans to conduct reclamation at Pedra Branca. Although the island had originally been under the sovereignty of the Johor Sultanate, the United Kingdom and Singapore had carried out various acts of sovereignty in respect of the island. The failure of Malaysia and its predecessors to respond to these acts, and other actions that demonstrated their acknowledgment of Singapore's sovereignty over the island, meant that Singapore had gained sovereignty over Pedra Branca. On the other hand, Middle Rocks remain part of Malaysian territory as Singapore had not manifested any acts of sovereignty in respect to it. The Court did not rule definitively on the remaining outcrop, South Ledge, declaring that it belonged to the state in the territorial waters of which it is located. Malaysia and Singapore have established the Joint Technical Committee to delimit the maritime boundary in the area around Pedra Branca and Middle Rocks, and to determine the ownership of South Ledge.
Singapore also asserts claims to territorial waters and airspace around Pedra Branca, including a slice of the South China Sea, which is discontiguous with the rest of Singapore's territorial waters. This discontiguity is due to Pedra Branca's location 40 kilometers east of the Singapore mainland, through a narrow strait between Malaysian and Indonesian land.
The award of sovereignty of Pedra Branca to Singapore has raised concerns in Malaysia if Pulau Pisang, near the west end of the Singapore Strait on which Singapore also operates a lighthouse, may also face territorial claims from Singapore. Thus far both Malaysian and Singapore governments have expressed that there is no question of Malaysia's sovereignty over Pulau Pisang.
On 1 February 2019, Pedra Branca was added to East Coast GRC for the Parliament of Singapore.
Etymology
Pedra Branca means "white rock" in Portuguese, and refers to whitish guano deposited on the rock by the black-naped tern, which used the island as a nesting ground. This name is used by both the English-language and Malay-language press in Singapore. Malaysia formerly referred to the island as Pulau Batu Puteh, which means "white rock island" in Malay, but the Government of Malaysia subsequently decided to drop the word Pulau. In August 2008 Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said Malaysia considered that the maritime feature did not meet internationally recognised criteria for an island, that is, land inhabited by humans that had economic activity.The island is known in Mandarin as Baijiao, which means "white reef". The Tamil name is பெத்ரா பிராங்கா, a transliteration of Pedra Branca.
Geography
Pedra Branca, located at 1° 19′ 48″ N and 104° 24′ 27″ E, is an island with an area of about at low tide. During the low water spring tide it measures, at its longest, a mere and has an average width of. It is approximately to the east of Singapore; south of Johor, Malaysia; and north of Bintan, Indonesia.There are two maritime features near Pedra Branca. Middle Rocks, which is under the sovereignty of Malaysia, consists of two clusters of small rocks about apart situated south of the island. They stand to permanently above water. South Ledge, on the other hand, is a rock formation visible only at low-tide. It is to the south-south-west of Pedra Branca. Its ownership has yet to be definitively determined by Malaysia and Singapore.
Rock samples from Pedra Branca, Middle Rocks and South Ledge show they are all composed of a light, coarse-grained biotite granite. Therefore, from a geomorphological standpoint, the three maritime features belong to the same rock body.
History
Pedra Branca was known to sailors for centuries. Part of the Chinese sailing instructions for the South China Sea based on information compiled by Admiral Zheng He advised a navigator that after departing Long Ya Men, a rocky outcrop at the gateway to what is now Keppel Harbour in Singapore, he should steer a course of between 75° and 90° for five watches until his vessel reached Baijiao. Pedra Branca was also mentioned in Dutch voyager Jan Huyghen van Linschoten's Itinerario, an account of his voyages in the Portuguese East Indies. After the publication of the work in 1596, the island began appearing regularly on European maps of the Far East. The 1598 English edition of the work stated:Pedra Branca was originally within the territory of the Johor-Riau Sultanate, which was founded in 1528 by Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah II, the son of Sultan Mahmud Shah of the Malacca Sultanate. In the mid-17th century, the Dutch Governor of Malacca wrote to the Dutch East India Company, asking it to send two boats to the Straits of Singapore to "cruise to the south of Singapore Straits under the Hook of Barbukit and in the vicinity of Pedra Branca" to stop Chinese traders from entering Johor River. The plan was put into force, and two Chinese junks were captured in the Straits and diverted to Malacca. However, this action provoked a protest from the Sultan of Johor, which showed that the Sultan regarded the junks' seizure as an infringement of his sovereignty in the area. Three letters written in 1824 to the Government of India by the British Resident in Singapore, John Crawfurd, also confirm it was his understanding that all the islands in the region of the Straits of Singapore came under the Johor Sultanate.
File:PedraBranca-Daniell-c1820-detail.jpg|thumb|left|Thomas and William Daniell's etching of Pedra Branca before the building of Horsburgh Lighthouse,
In addition, other 19th-century documents show that the Sultan of Johor exercised authority over the Orang Laut who inhabited the maritime areas of the Straits of Singapore and visited Pedra Branca. One of these was a letter of November 1850 by John Turnbull Thomson, the Government Surveyor of Singapore, which reported on the need to exclude the Orang Laut from Pedra Branca where Horsburgh Lighthouse was being built. Calling them a "half fishing half piratical sect", Thomson noted that they "frequently visit the rock so their visits should never be encouraged nor any trust put in them... In the straits and islets of the neighbouring shores and islands many lives are taken by these people."
On 17 March 1824, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands signed the Anglo–Dutch Treaty of 1824. It divided the old Johor Sultanate into two new Sultanates: the new Sultanate of Johor, which would be under the British sphere of influence, and the Sultanate of Riau–Lingga under Dutch influence. Under Article XII of the Treaty, Britain agreed that "no British Establishment shall be made on the Carimon Isles, or on the Island of Bantam, Bintang, Lingin, or on any of the other Islands South of the Straits of Singapore..." The islands and islets within the Straits fell within the British sphere of influence. This included Pedra Branca, which thus remained part of the territorial domain of the new Johor Sultanate.
1840s to 1851: Construction of Horsburgh Lighthouse
Captain James Horsburgh, a Scottish hydrographer to the British East India Company who had prepared many charts and sailing instructions for the East Indies, China, New Holland, the Cape of Good Hope and other intermediate ports, died in May 1836. Merchants and mariners felt that the building of one or more lighthouses would be a fitting tribute to him, and in as early as November 1836 Pedra Branca was proposed as one of the preferred sites. By 1844, preference had been expressed for Romania Outer Island, or Peak Rock. Some time in November 1844, the Governor of the Straits Settlements, William John Butterworth, wrote to the Sultan and the Temenggung of Johor regarding the matter. His letters have not been found, but English translations of the replies, dated 25 November 1844, indicate that the Sultan and Temenggung favoured the proposal. In particular, the Temenggung wrote that "the company are at full liberty to put up a Light House there, or any spot deemed eligible". Three days later, on 28 November, the Governor wrote to the Secretary of the Government in India to recommend that the lighthouse be sited on Peak Rock. Among other things, he said that "his Rock is part of the Territories of the Rajah of Johore, who with the Tamongong... have willingly consented to cede it gratuitously to the East India Company", and enclosed the replies received from the Sultan and Temenggung. Although this was apparently the Governor's understanding of the situation, he did not communicate it to the Sultan and Temenggung. It is unclear whether the correspondence was limited to Peak Rock or extended to other potential sites for the lighthouse such as Pedra Branca, and whether the sovereignty of Johor over any place chosen for the lighthouse was ceded to the British Government or only a permission to build, maintain and operate a lighthouse was granted.File:ChineseKayTribeStonecutters-Singapore.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A sketch by Thomson showing Chinese stonecutters from the "Kay tribe" at work in a quarry on Pulau Ubin, an island off the northeast coast of Singapore, which supplied granite for the lighthouse on Pedra Branca.
On 22 August 1845, Governor Butterworth wrote again to the Government of India, indicating he trusted that construction of the lighthouse on Peak Rock would begin soon "as a light in that quarters is becoming daily of more paramount importance". Between 1824 and 1851, at least 16 sizeable vessels were wrecked in the vicinity of Pedra Branca and Point Romania. However, in April 1846, the Lords of the Admiralty in London informed the Court of Directors of the East India Company they were inclined to think that Pedra Branca was the best point for the lighthouse. John Thomson and Captain S. Congalton, commander of the East India Company's steamer called the Hooghly, carried out surveys in May and August. In a report dated 25 August, they said they were "decidedly of opinion that Pedra Branca is the only proper position for a Light to be placed... for the safety of Shipping whether entering or departing for the Straits of Singapore..." The following day, Governor Butterworth wrote to the Government of India stating that the Government "will at once perceive that Pedra Branca is the only true position" for the lighthouse. On 30 October 1846, the President in Council in India approved Pedra Branca as the site for the lighthouse. The East India Company gave its approval on 24 February 1847, and on 10 May of that year the Government of India asked Governor Butterworth to take measures for the construction of the lighthouse. There is no evidence that the authorities in Singapore thought it necessary or desirable to inform the Johor authorities of the decision about the siting of the lighthouse or to seek any consent for its erection.
Although the private subscribers wishing to commemorate Horsburgh had raised a sum which, with compound interest, came up to more than 7,400 Spanish dollars when it was paid over to the Singapore authorities, there was still a shortfall of funds for the building works. Thus, the Government of India, in agreement with the East India Company, authorised Governor Butterworth to prepare a law imposing a duty on vessels entering Singapore and asked him to take immediate measures to begin constructing the lighthouse. The Light Dues Act 1852 was duly enacted by the Governor-General of India in Council on 30 January 1852. Thomson, appointed by the Governor as the architect for the project, took charge of planning and supervising the construction of Horsburgh Lighthouse. Construction work began in late March or early April 1850. On Queen Victoria's birthday, 24 May 1850, the foundation stone was laid at a ceremony conducted by members of the newly founded Masonic Lodge Zetland in the East No. 749 and attended by the Governor, the commander of the Singapore garrison, a rear admiral and several foreign consuls. The construction of the lighthouse then continued till 21 October, and resumed after the monsoon in April 1851. Up to 50 workmen were involved, including Chinese carpenters and stonemasons and their Malay assistants, Indian quarrymen and convict labourers, a cook and his assistant, and six lascars to defend the island from attack by pirates. The pirates of the South China Sea were notorious – during the construction of Horsburgh Lighthouse nine Chinese labourers were killed in pirate raids. Building materials and supplies were brought by the Hooghly, supported by two gunboats and two lighters. Unless he was required elsewhere, Thomson stayed on the island to supervise the works. The ceremonial first lighting of the lamp was arranged for 27 September 1851, again attended by the Governor, Masons of the Zetland Lodge, foreign dignitaries, senior residents of Singapore and other notables; the Singapore Free Press reported: "A simultaneous rising announced that the process of illumination had commenced. Three hearty cheers welcomed the light, the meteor-like brilliancy of which will probably serve to guide the midnight path of the mariner for a thousand years to come." On 15 October the lighthouse was permanently turned on, and Thomson finally departed Pedra Branca for Singapore on the Hooghly on 18 November 1851.