Pulau Brani is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, near Keppel Harbour

Keppel Harbour

Keppel Harbour is a stretch of water in Singapore between the mainland and the southern islands of Pulau Brani and Sentosa. Its naturally sheltered and deep waters was to meet the requirements of British colonists attempting to establish a Far East maritime colony in that part of the world, and...

. The island is situated between the main island of Singapore and the resort island of Sentosa

Sentosa

Sentosa, which translates to peace and tranquility in Malay , is a popular island resort in Singapore, visited by some five million people a year...

, and is linked to the mainland via Brani Terminal Avenue. The area of Pulau Brani is 1.22 km².

Etymology

Pulau Brani means "Island of the Brave" in Malay

Malay language

Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...

 (berani means "brave") or "Home of the Warrior

Warrior

A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...

s". In an 1828 sketch of the island of Singapore, the island is referred to as Po. Ayer Brani.

There are at least three Malay legend

Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...

s and stories pertaining to the island's name. One story propounds that the island got its name because it was the burial ground

Burial Ground

Burial Ground is the ninth studio album by Swedish death metal band Grave, released in June 2010.-Track listing:# "Liberation" - 3:40# "Semblance In Black" - 7:50# "Dismembered Mind" - 6:10# "Ridden With Belief" - 7:57# "Conquerer" - 4:44...

 of old warrior pirates. Another view refers to the island as Pulau Ayer Brani, as recorded in John Turnbull Thomson's 1949 chart, because a stream

Stream

A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...

 of fresh water was said to come up from the coastal sea bed or beach

Beach

A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...

, which persisted despite the flow of sea water. The third story has it that there is a well

Water well

A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...

 on top of the island, with water of potent qualities. A tank formed of natural rock on the Tanjong Pagar

Tanjong Pagar

Tanjong Pagar is a historic district located within the Central Business District in Singapore, straddling the Outram Planning Area and the Downtown Core under the Urban Redevelopment Authority's urban planning zones....

 side of the island contained the overflow of water from this well and was used by people for bathing.

Pulau Brani is known as san chu shek tui min in Cantonese, meaning "opposite the new tin

Tin

Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

 smelting

Smelting

Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their ores...

" due to a tin smelting plant located on the island in the first half of the twentieth century. The Cantonese also refer to it as cha tin ma thau tui min, meaning "opposite Jardine's jetty

Jetty

A jetty is any of a variety of structures used in river, dock, and maritime works that are generally carried out in pairs from river banks, or in continuation of river channels at their outlets into deep water; or out into docks, and outside their entrances; or for forming basins along the...

".

History

Initially, Pulau Brani only had Malay fishing village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

s along the coast, such as Telok Saga and Kampong Selat Sengkir. In 1845, G.A. Prinsep proposed building a patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 ship

Ship

Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...

 at Telok Saga which is on the north side of the island. In 1846, Jacob Chinis published plans for the construction of a dry dock

Dry dock

A drydock 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...

 on the same side. One of the great coin

Coin

A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....

 divers in the 1930s was Wak Melau who stayed at Telok Saga. His father came from Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

 but he had stayed all his life at Telok Saga as a coin diver and fisherman.

Interest in Pulau Brani as a military base

Military base

A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...

 was already evident before 1822, with the completion of a chart based on a survey

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

 of the island and its coast in that year by Captain Franklin, the Quarter Master

Quartermaster

Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...

 in the General Surveyor's Department. By March 1889, the island was made into a navy

Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...

 and military fort, following the decision to transfer forts to the islands south of the new harbour at Keppel Harbour

Keppel Harbour

Keppel Harbour is a stretch of water in Singapore between the mainland and the southern islands of Pulau Brani and Sentosa. Its naturally sheltered and deep waters was to meet the requirements of British colonists attempting to establish a Far East maritime colony in that part of the world, and...

. In line with the above, the Commissariat

Commissariat

A commissariat is the department of an army charged with the provision of supplies, both food and forage, for the troops. The supply of military stores such as ammunition is not included in the duties of a commissariat. In almost every army the duties of transport and supply are performed by the...

 and the Ordnance

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...

 Department were moved to Pulau Brani.

In 1890, the Straits Trading Company

Straits Trading Company

The Straits Trading Company Limited is a Singapore-based corporation with operations in Singapore and Malaysia, as well as various localities in Asia and Australia....

 opened a tin smelting plant on Pulau Brani. In February 1942, the plant was destroyed in view of the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 surrender of Singapore to the Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

. However, with the ending of the Japanese Occupation

Japanese Occupation of Singapore

The Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between about 1942 and 1945 after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied Singapore after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore...

 in 1945, the plant was restored and smelting resumed. In 1965, the Straits Trading Company's lease

Lease

A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...

 expired and the company soon moved out.

The British army had their maritime (water transport) base here, first with the RASC and then the RCT. Many families lived in the married quarters on the island. Primary children attended the British army school located near Buller Jetty, as did the children from army families on Blakang Mati (now Sentosa). Secondary age children had to go to the mainland by ferry, attending the Alexandra Schools at Gillman Barracks, then after 1964 either Bourne (in the Gillman buildings) or the brand new St John's Comprehensive in what is now the United World College in Dover Road.

Pulau Brani was selected to house a naval base

Naval base

A naval base is a military base, where warships and naval ships are deployed when they have no mission at sea or want to restock. Usually ships may also perform some minor repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that usually stay on the ships but are undergoing maintenance while...

 in early 1971 for the then Singapore Maritime Command (now Republic of Singapore Navy

Republic of Singapore Navy

The Republic of Singapore Navy is the naval component of the Singapore Armed Forces , responsible for the defence of Singapore against sea-borne threats and protection of its sea lines of communications. Operating within the crowded littoral waters of the Singapore Strait, the RSN is regarded as...

). In those days, there were some settlements along the island's coast. In addition, there were the Pulau Brani Sports Club, the Pulau Brani Community Club and two primary schools - Tai Chong and Telok Saga.

In September 1971, work for the development of the naval base commenced, and villagers living on the island were resettled to mainland Singapore

Pulau Ujong

Pulau Ujong or Singapore Island is the main island of the island country of Singapore. It forms the majority of the island country in terms of area and population...

. Land reclamation

Land reclamation

Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...

 works by the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) commenced in April 1972. The PSA also carried out the removal of reef

Reef

In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....

, dredging, and widening of Selat Sengkir (the channel between Pulau Brani and Sentosa) in February 1973.

The new naval base, then known as the Singapore Maritime Command Naval Base, was officially opened by former Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Singapore

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore is the head of the government of the Republic of Singapore. The President of Singapore appoints as Prime Minister a Member of Parliament who, in his opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of a majority of MPs.The office of Prime Minister...

 Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew

Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, governing for three decades...

 on 26 January 1974. The base was subsequently renamed Brani Naval Base

Brani Naval Base

Brani Naval Base was a former naval facility of the Republic of Singapore Navy, since the relocation of its facilities to Changi Naval Base and Tuas Naval Base in 2000...

.

Part of the naval base was redeveloped to build Brani Container Terminal. On 12 October 2000, the rest of the base was officially closed when its facilities were moved to Changi Naval Base

Changi Naval Base

Changi Naval Base is the latest naval facility of the Republic of Singapore Navy and was built to replace Brani Naval Base. Located about 1.5 kilometres east of Changi Air Base and 3.5 kilometres east of Singapore Changi Airport, the base was built on 1.28 km² of reclaimed land, it was...

. The vacant facilities will be taken over by the Singapore Police Force

Singapore Police Force

The Singapore Police Force is the main agency tasked with maintaining law and order in the city-state. Formerly known as the Republic of Singapore Police , it has grown from an 11-man organisation to a 38,587 strong force...

's Police Coast Guard

Police Coast Guard

The Police Coast Guard is the Marine Police division of the Singapore Police Force which also takes on roles of the coast guard typically handled by the military or as separate organisations in other countries...

 for its new headquarters.

External links

• Satellite image - Google Maps
  Google Maps
  Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...