BIBLIOASIA APR – JUN 2017 Vol. 13 / Issue 01 / Feature

If the tides are high a decomposition of animal matter These platforms of living rock were usually well as Donax canniformis, a fibrous shrub It never will appear, carried on in a gigantic scale… If hidden under the waves, too deep to be used to weave these traps.8 That little winking island malaria is produced from animal visible but high enough to scrape or worse, Both etymologies are apt; fishermen Not very far from here; decomposition on land, and we have sunder a stray hull. visited (and still frequent) these reefs to set a similar decomposition at sea, I But from the mid-19th century, a few traps weighed down by coral chunks and But if the tides are low think I am entitled to make my first toponyms began to emerge, as the words checked at regular intervals for stingrays And mud-flats stretch a mile, deduction, that wherever a coral reef and worlds of native pilots, boatmen and and groupers. And these reefs indeed rise The little island rises is exposed at low tide, decomposition islanders who knew these waters for gen- with the falling tide “to stretch out before To take the sun awhile. will go on to an extent proportioned to erations by heart filtered into the mental, one”, forming an expanse of land, a shim- – Margaret Leong1 the size of the reef and that malaria and eventually printed, charts of foreign mer of sand and shoal where minutes ago will be the result.”3 cartographers to give shape and signifi- there was bare sea. But in an hour or two, cance to these submarine forms. this ephemeral landscape will vanish once For all his misplaced suspicions, Dr An 1849 map is perhaps the first more as the waters return to shield the reef Little’s initial encounters with Blakang to mark “Ter Pempang”, west of Pulau and its builders from sun and sight. Mati’s pristine reefs betrayed more than a Bukom, which lies off the southern coast Intriguingly, the 1849 map indicated In 1847, Dr Robert Little, a British surgeon, tinge of admiration for their alien beauty. of . “Ter” is short for terumbu, the presence of a hut on Terumbu Pem- set off on a series of tours to Singapore’s He was moved to write: Malay for a reef that is visible only during pang as well as another on Pulo Pandan. , beginning with the isle low tide. It is less clear what “Pempang” These huts must have been set above the iknown as Pulau Blakang Mati (present-day “At low water spring tides, the whole refers to. One possibility is that pampang highest tide point, perhaps as shelters for Sentosa2). His journeys were no joyrides; the of these reefs are uncovered, so means “to stretch out before one”.7 Another fishermen from nearby islands. No trace of good doctor was investigating the source of that by lying on the reef, one can Malay word, bemban, denotes a fish trap as any such structures survive today; instead, “remittent fever” – a form of malaria – that look down into a depth of from 4 to 9 had killed some three-fourths of the men fathoms, like as a school boy does on (Facing page) Living reefs off Serapong on the northeast coast of . Photo taken by Ria Tan on 23 posted to a signal station at Blakang Mati. a wall and looks at the objects below, May 2011. Courtesy of WildSingapore. The station was indispensable to navigation which here are living corals of many (Below) This painting from the 1830s depicts a cluster of wooden houses perched on stilts on . in the straits, but as no men were willing to and wondrous shapes, with tints so In the 1960s, residents were asked to resettle on mainland Singapore to make way for the construction of serve at the ill-fated site, it was abandoned beautiful that nothing on earth can a naval base. Courtesy of the National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board. in 1845. equal them. While the lovely coral (Bottom) Two boys playing with their pet roosters in a Malay kampong on Pulau Seking, an offshore island that is now part of , 1983. Quek Tiong Swee Collection, courtesy of National In the mid-19th century, malarial fever fish, vying with their abodes in the Archives of Singapore. was often blamed on miasma or bad air liveliness of their colours, are to be that emanated from decaying vegetation seen peeping out of every crevice, in swamps or, in the case of Pulau Blakang which at full tide has but a few feet Mati, its dense pineapple plantations. Being of water to cover it.”4 an annual crop, the remains of every harvest were often left to rot; this led to the belief Dr Little hit an epidemiological dead- that the decaying leaves emitted miasmatic end,5 but his expeditions to Blakang Mati, A Survey of Singapore’s Reefs vapours that infected nearby residents. St John’s and Lazarus Islands as well as Dr Little, however, held a different now-forgotten isles such as Brani, Seking, theory, believing that the miasma originated Sakra and Pesek, offered a rare if fleeting from coral reefs. During the 19th century, window to Singapore’s reefs and the com- extensive fringing reefs lined Singapore’s munities who lived off them. southern shores and islands while isolated or patch reefs, known to locals as terumbu Danger at High Water or beting, abounded in the straits. Although the doctor must have been familiar with Singapore’s reefscape posed no medical these habitats, he found cause to regard threat, but these maritime structures them as less a treat than a threat. He were for centuries cause for other mortal explained: concerns. Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, a 16th-century Dutch merchant, warned “Wherever we have coral reefs captains to steer clear of areas “full of exposed at ebb tide we have a great Riffes and shallowes” (reefs and shallows) destruction of coralline polyps, and as they sailed past en route to China. The 19th-century English hydrog- The reefs that fringed Singapore’s coastline and rapher James Horsburgh would repeat this Marcus Ng is a freelance writer, editor caution, describing the Singapore Straits and curator interested in biodiversity, islands have served for centuries as maritime as “united by reefs and dangers, mostly ethnobiology and the intersection 6 markers, fishing grounds and even homes for between natural and human histories. covered at high water.” His work includes the book Habitats in The Europeans who first ventured island communities. Marcus Ng rediscovers the Harmony: The Story of Semakau Landfill into the straits had few or no names for stories that lurk beneath the waves. (National Environment Agency, 2009 and the reefs that barred their passage. (One 2012), and two exhibitions at the National exception was Sultan Shoal, now the site of Museum of Singapore: “Balik Pulau: an exquisite lighthouse, which Horsburgh Stories from Singapore’s Islands” and explained was named after a ship of this “Danger and Desire”. name that ran aground on the reef in 1789.)

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The same newspaper report laid bare Today, Sentosa’s surviving coral reefs future discourses on land-use and habitat the fate of some of the reefs and islets off cling to the island’s peripheries: off Sera- conservation in Singapore. Blakang Mati which so beguiled Dr Little pong at its northeast and along Tanjong in the 1840s: “A bigger Sentosa Island Rimau on the northwest, a sliver of natural Shoals of Contention include[s] three other islands: Buran Darat, rocky coastline which guards the colonial- Sarong Island and Pulau Selegu. Terembu era . Along the mainland, there Pulau Seringat, which was conjoined with [sic] Palawan, formerly a reef off the south- are also fringing reefs along less accessible (Pulau Sekijang Pelepah) ern coast of Sentosa, has been reclaimed parts of and Tanah Merah, off the southern coast at the turn of the and is now an island called .” whose ultimate fate probably hinges on 21st century, offers a glimpse into the

pulo pandan: an island turned reef as a pig pen in 1985, and now forms part Pulo Pandan is now reduced to Terumbu of Island. Beting Kusah,16 a sand Pandan and forms part of the Cyrene bank off , now lies under the air- Reefs. But in centuries past, Pulo Pandan port tarmacs. In contrast, Beting Bronok loomed much larger, and even stood out (named after an edible sea cucumber) as a landmark in the straits. The island has escaped the extensive reclamation was signposted by Jan Huyghen van that befell nearby and was Linschoten in 1596, when the Dutchman designated a Nature Area in 201317 for its described the journey eastward on the rare marine life such as knobbly sea stars, Selat Sembilan (“Straits of Nine Islands”) thorny sea urchins and baler shells. between Pasir Panjang and the present the straits. Up until the mid-1970s, women- Buran Darat, a coral patch named : folk in , an island southwest after “a kind of sea-anemone of a light of the Pempang reefs, “regularly collected green colour and eaten by the Chinese”, Terumbu Pempang Laut (one of six adjacent “… running as I said before along sea foodstuffs from the island’s fringing was reclaimed in the late 1990s to create reefs bearing the appellation “Pempang”) by the Ilands on the right hand, reef”,12 some 12 times the size of the island, the Sentosa Cove luxury resort.18 Terumbu hosts a warning beacon, while a large sign and coming by the aforesaid round before the reef was reclaimed in 1977. The Retan Laut, a reef off Pasir Panjang, was on Terumbu Pempang Darat announces Island [Pulau Mesemut Laut22], The living reefs of Cyrene Shoal, off the southwestern coast of Singapore. Photo taken by Ria Tan on women also ventured to a nearby patch reef reclaimed in the 1970s to provide anchor- 22 March 2007. Courtesy of WildSingapore. the presence of buried high voltage cables. on the right at the end of the row to harvest agar agar (gelatinous seaweed), age19 for lighters evicted20 from the Sin- As for Pulo Pandan, there is sign of of Ilands whereby you pass, you gulong (bêche-de-mer) and undok (sea- gapore River and eventually buried under neither hut nor island today. The only clue shall see a small flat Iland [Cyrene target, at least a sinking one – an island Gibson-Hill believed that the island horses). Chew Soo Beng, who documented steel, concrete and cranes, as reported in that a landmass existed in this patch of Shoal], with a few trees, having a that long guarded the western entrance was still extant in the 1820s, when the islanders before their eviction to the the Straits Times in 1995: “Terumbu Retan sea between Pasir Panjang and Bukom white sandy strand, which lieth to but which lost over Captain James Franklin marked it as mainland, described a scene that has long Laut on the west coast will be partially is a trio of warning beacons and a ring of east and west, with the mouth of time its land, trees and name. After the Pulo Busing in an 1828 map. “Busing” vanished from the straits: dredged away... What remains of it will be buoys that are not always heeded by ships, ye Straight of Sincapura [Keppel isle vanished, port authorities deemed it a may have been derived from busong, used for port terminal development on the which run aground on the reef every now Harbour], which you shall make shipping hazard and placed lights and signs Malay for “a spit of sand”, but Gibson- “During ebb tide, the outer reaches of west coast.”21 and then.9 There is also no trace of Pulo towards…”23 on the site to prevent collisions.27 Hill suggested that it was more likely a the reef to the west of Pulau Sudong Pandan on modern charts, just a cluster Further insights on this reef are pro- corruption of pusing (“to turn”), as the are completely exposed… Groups of contours marked collectively as the (Above) A portion of J. T. Thomson’s 1846 survey The seashore pandan (Pandanus vided by another doctor, Carl Alexander sight of the island’s shimmering sands of women row their kolek [a small Cyrene Reefs, the largest of which is map of the Strait of Singapore showing the west- tectorius), a native plant associated with Gibson-Hill, the Raffles Museum’s last in the distance was a cue for mariners sea craft] to different parts of the named Terumbu Pandan. ern entrance into the strait. Urban Redevelop- sandy beaches, may have been the tree expatriate director. In 1951, Gibson-Hill set to alter their course towards Keppel exposed portion of the reef to gather ment Authority, courtesy of National Archives that lent its name to Pulo Pandan. By sail to retrace Linschoten’s sailing route Harbour. Certainly, Cyrene Shoal's sea produce… When both the tide and of Singapore. 1848, however, Pulo Pandan had been and determine the fate of the Old Straits significance as a landmark was felt by Low Tide Treasures the sun were low, the gay chatter of (Below) Cyrene Reef is home to a large population of knobbly sea stars. Photo taken on 22 July 2012. denuded of vegetation but gained a new of Singapore, which ran past Pasir Panjang its absence, for Gibson-Hill was vexed the women at work would drift into the Pulo Pandan may be long gone (see box Courtesy of Marcus Ng. toponym,24 as the Singapore Free Press and through Keppel Harbour but fell into as he sailed in the path of Linschoten’s village where the men, excluded from story), but life persists, at least under noted: “Called by the Malays Pulo Pan- disuse in the early 17th century. Cyrene wake and concluded: the offshore merriment, conversed the waves. Early descriptions of Cyrene dan, and by the English Cyrene shoal; Shoal would prove pivotal in his quest, as beneath their favourite pondok [hut]. Shoal’s natural wealth still ring true today, the trees have all disappeared, but aged Gibson-Hill would write of Linschoten’s “There is no doubt that the old The reef was called Terembu Raya for the reef harbours marine biodiversity natives say that there were many trees “small, flat Iland”: route was an easy one to follow, (Big Reef)13 by the fishermen who that makes it, in the words of Ria Tan, a on the reef in former times, hence the coming from the west, so long as set their small fish traps at the edge veteran nature conservationist, the “Chek Malays call it a Pulo or Island.”25 “It is clear that this small sandy there were a few trees on the white, of it.”14 Jawa of the South”. One visitor in the 1960s By the 1890s, whatever remained of island with a clump of trees (probably sandy islet on Cyrene Shoal… The recalled “emerald waters” and “deep the Pulo had vanished, and the Descrip- coconut palms) on it of Linschoten’s absence of the original mark was chasms which in good visibility could rival Lost Reefs tive Dictionary of British Malaya had this account was at the eastern end of very noticeable when I went over the view of the Grand Canyon”.10 Marine to say of it: “[Cyrene] Shoal… presents a Cyrene Shoal, and it undoubtedly Linschoten’s course from Pulau biologists have recorded 37 genera of Pulo Pandan’s slow erosion into the brilliant appearance at low water, being afforded a most valuable mark to Merambong eastward… and one corals and seven seagrass species at Terumbu Pandan reef was probably the covered with live corals and shells, anyone sailing through the two felt that the disappearance of the Cyrene Shoal, as well as large numbers of natural consequence of storms and cur- many of the most brilliant colours. It straits. The sandy strand survived trees might have been one of the knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus) rents that swamped the erstwhile island. is a favourite hunting ground for con- until the last century, but apparently factors that led to the final disuse and signs of endangered dugongs on the Conversely, other local reefs have been chologists.”26 by 1797 it boasted only one tree. of this route.”29 reef’s seagrass bed.11 shaped by man to become new islands, Pulo Pandan presents for histori- Presumably it was slowly breaking Such natural bounty would have been coves and port terminals. South of Ju- ans and cartographers, if not a shifting up during this period.”28 familiar to the people who once dwelled in rong, Terumbu Pesek was reclaimed15

32 33 BIBLIOASIA APR – JUN 2017 Vol. 13 / Issue 01 / Feature possibilities that face Singapore’s reefs. In the 1970s, Pulau Rengit was ear- marine conservation movement, which “The small team that landed on the I felt great regret that very few in 1999 at Pulau Semakau, got into the Where the island now stands was once a marked as a “holiday island”.34 Some 12.2 had been calling for the protection of local reef was there… [to] collect, record Singaporeans had experienced the game by launching guided walks to the tidal islet known as Pulau Rengit, which hectares of reef were reclaimed, but little reefs since the early 1990s. But little could and preserve as many specimens beauty of this reef. It remains to this island’s reef flat.41 refers to either a sandfly or a freshwa- else took place until the late 1990s when be done other than a salvage operation as physically possible before it was day the precious but private memory Rather fittingly, Singapore’s first ter shell.30 Another account from 1923, the government approved a more ambi- by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity finally lost to . The of very few.”38 marine park was carved out on the door- however, cites the alternate moniker of tious programme to reclaim 34 hectares Research (RMBR; now Lee Kong Chian reef revealed rather surprising step of Pulau Seringat, the former reef Pulau Ringgit to explain that the islet of foreshore, seabed and reefs, and link up Natural History Museum) to collect and finds – numerous Neptune cups [a In 2001, when word got out that Chek that had fermented the movement to was “named by reason of the fact that Rengit with St John’s and Lazarus islands document the reef’s marine life. The rare sponge], cushion stars, giant Jawa at was slated for reclama- save . Unveiled on 12 July 2014, the ninety or more Malay fishermen and to form a “canal-laced marine village with experience, however, would prove to be clams, crabs, octopus, fish, sea tion by year-end, the marine conservation Sisters’ Islands Marine Park includes the the one Chinese store-keeper who sup- recreational and mooring facilities, and a catalyst that shaped subsequent con- stars and colourful corals including community felt, as Sivasothi put it, that twin Sisters’ Islands as well as reefs at plies their needs, pay a nominal annual waterfront housing”.35 servation campaigns. N Sivasothi, then spectacularly red sea fans…37 When “this time, we could do better”. They mobi- St John’s Island and . The rent of a dollar for the privilege of living The impending loss36 of Pulau Rengit a RMBR research officer who took part I saw the Pulau Seringat reefs before lised, with the help of the then burgeoning marine park, which hosts regular inter- a congested existence there”.31 was mourned by Singapore’s nascent in the salvage, recalled: their reclamation in August 1997, internet, to invite Singaporeans to a “last tidal walks and offers a dive trail for more Within a decade, however, most of the chance to see” Chek Jawa and its diverse intrepid explorers, has played no small islanders would leave their home, which a marine life. The memory and lessons of part in rekindling a sense of the sea, and 1935 article described as “an almost barren, Pulau Seringat were still fresh and the by extension a sense of islandness, which low-lying stretch of coral”. The same report experience prompted the museum to initiate many Singaporeans have probably lost (or added of the residents: “They have now been large-scale walks at Chek Jawa to share never learned) as the straits retreated42 moved – there are only a few dozen of them the beauty and biodiversity of this shore and bulldozers and dredgers moved in left – to a neighbouring islet which suffers with the public. to create land for a growing population. less from the inundations of high tides.”32 Teams of volunteers led walks that To board a ferry or bumboat bound It would appear that the few families that exposed Chek Jawa to thousands of visi- for the southern islands and reefs43 from remained on Pulau Rengit eventually all tors, while press coverage of the campaign the pier at is to tread back moved to the mainland. Tijah bte Awang, gave rise to broad-based appeals for the in time and catch sight of the mainland a villager born on Pulau Rengit, recalled: preservation of the coastal wetland. At the as sailors and sojourners once beheld eleventh hour, on 20 December 2001, the it – a strip of promised land sandwiched “When I was growing up on Pulau government announced a 10-year defer- between the sky and seething sea. Seringat, which some called Pulau ment of reclamation for Chek Jawa. It is also a trip, not to the southern Rengit, I remember it as one with margins of an island nation, but to where no trees – just land, with one small To Sea, to See Singapore first took shape and entered the mosque surrounded by 15 houses… imagination as an entity, an island at the our homes were built on stilts and The zeitgeist of marine conservation junction of empires that first enthralled a placed side by side facing the sea… that accompanied Chek Jawa persisted Palembang prince and later an employee I remember in 1930, our island was in the decade that followed. Instead of of a British trading company – a point of not safe. The authorities feared that bulldozers, Chek Jawa received a coastal departure from landlocked vistas to an the sea would swallow up the island boardwalk and continues to host popular archipelago of reefs, shoals and islands, (Above) Smooth ribbon seagrass (Cymodocea 39 during extreme high tide or during rotundata) growing in abundance at the seagrass intertidal walks. Riding on this wave of a landscape that remains to this day in a storm… I can’t remember exactly lagoon at Chek Jawa. Photo taken by Ria Tan on 27 interest in the marine environment, avid flux and in thrall to the tides. when we left Pulau Seringat. I may November 2004. Courtesy of WildSingapore. divers began offering guided dive tours have been in my teens when our (Right) High tide at the Chek Jawa boardwalk. Photo of the reefs off (south of family made the permanent shift to taken by Ria Tan on 19 October 2008. Courtesy of ) from 2003.40 Two years WildSingapore. Lazarus Island.”33 later, even Singapore’s only landfill, built

East Indies, China, Australia, and the interjacent ports 14 Chew, S. B. (1982). Fishermen in flats (p. 36). Clayton, 21 Tan, H. Y. (1995, November 22). Singapore islands get Raffles Museum,3, p.167. (Call no.: RCLOS 959.51 38 N. Sivasothi. (2002, April). Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin: Notes of Africa and South America (Vol.2)(p. 266). London: W. Vic.: Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash new names with reclamation. The Straits Times, p. 3. BOG-[RFL]) From research to education. ALUMNUS. Retrieved 1 The island Margaret Leong described is really a reef, as it H. Allen & Co. Retrieved from BookSG. University. (Call no.: RSING 301.4443095957 CHE) Retrieved from NewspaperSG. 29 Gibson-Hill, May 1954, pp. 168–185. from National University of Singapore website. vanishes at high tide. See Leong, M. (2011). Winking island 7 Winstedt, R. (1964). A practical modern Malay-English 15 Work to start on $13m pig project island. (1985, 22 Now part of Jurong Island. 30 Haughton, 1889, p. 79. 39 It should be noted that Chek Jawa, along with Pulau (p. 16). In S. Lim & A. Poon. (Eds.), The ice ball man and other dictionary (p. 133). Kuala Lumpur; Singapore: Marican. April 18). The Straits Times, p. 9. Retrieved from 23 As quoted and annotated by Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill. 31 St. John’s Island. (1923, April 2). The Singapore Free Hantu and the Pempang reefs, is still earmarked for poems. Singapore: Ethos Books. (Call no.: JRSING 811 LEO) (Call no.: RSING Malay 499.230321 WIN) NewspaperSG. See Gibson-Hill, C. A. (1954, May). Singapore: Notes on Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1884–1942), p. 12. possible eventual reclamation in Singapore’s 2013 2 Renamed Sentosa in 1970, the island’s ominous Malay 8 Burkill, I. H. (2002). A dictionary of the economic 16 Haughton, H. T. (1889), Notes on names of places in the history of the Old Strait, 1580–1850. Journal of the Retrieved from NewspaperSG. land-use Master Plan. See What shores will Singapore name, literally “behind dead island”, was thought to have products of the Malay Peninsula (Vol. 1) (p. 868). Kuala the island of Singapore and its Vicinity. Journal of Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 27 (1 (165)), 32 St John’s Island. (1935, June 1). The Straits Times, p. 13. lose in 7-million population plan? (2013, January 31). stemmed from its pestilential reputation. However, the Lumpur, Malaysia: Ministry of Agriculture, Malaysia. (Call the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 20, 163–214, pp. 167–168. Retrieved from JSTOR via NLB’s Retrieved from NewspaperSG. Retrieved from Wild Shores of Singapore website. toponym Blacan Mati was already in use by the 1600s. no.: RSEA 634.9095951 BUR); Winstedt, 1964, p. 25. p. 76. Retrieved from JSTOR via NLB’s eResources eResources website: http://www.eresources.nlb.gov.sg/ 33 Island Nation Project. (2015–2016). From one island to 40 Goh, J. (2010). About us [Web blog]. Retrieved from The 3 Little, R. (1848). On coral reefs as a cause of the fever 9 Taiwan trawler runs aground (1983, June 30). The website: http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/; Beting refers 24 Carl Alexander Gibson-Hill records that the name another. Retrieved from Island Nation Project website. Hantu Bloggers website. of the islands near Singapore. In J. R. Logan, (Ed.). The Straits Times, p. 15; Ferry with 40 aboard runs aground. to a partially submerged sand bank, while kusah was “Cyrene’s Reef” first appeared in a map by Captain (Note: The “Island Nation” exhibition was held at the 41 Ng, M. F. C. (2009). Habitats in harmony: The story of Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, 2, (1998, December 6). The Straits Times, p. 27. Retrieved thought to be a corruption of susah, meaning “difficult”. Daniel Ross in 1830. In Greek mythology, Cyrene was a National Library Building from 2–27 June 2015.) Semakau Landfill. Singapore: National Environment 572–599, p. 599. (Microfilm no.: NL 25790) from NewspaperSG. 17 Tan, W. (2013, February 1). Three more nature areas nymph who was a fierce huntress and gave her name 34 Reef will become holiday island by October. (1976, August Agency. (Call no.: RSING 333.95095957 NG) 4 Little, 1848, p. 585. 10 Destroying Singapore’s undersea treasures. (1968, to be conserved under land use plan. Today. Retrieved to a city in Libya. 27). New Nation, p. 4. Retrieved from NewspaperSG. 42 Until the 1970s, the sea lapped the edges of familiar places 5 The mystery was solved only in 1886 when a French April 4). The Straits Times, p. 10. Retrieved from from Factiva via NLB’s eResources website: http:// 25 Untitled. (1848, November 2). The Singapore Free Press 35 Singapore. Parliament. Official reports – such as East Coast Road, Beach Road, , , surgeon, Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, discovered NewspaperSG. eresources.nlb.gov.sg/ and Mercantile Advertiser (1835–1869), p. 3. Retrieved Parliamentary debates (Hansard). (1996, October 28). the Esplanade and Collyer Quay, before the creation of microscopic parasites in the blood of malaria victims. 11 Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum. (2017). Cyrene 18 Haughton, 1889, p. 77; . (2016). from NewspaperSG. Reclamation (Southern Islands). (Vol 66, col. 840). districts such as Marina Bay and . It took another decade before British doctor Ronald Reef. Retrieved from The DNA of Singapore website. Sentosa Cove written by Chew, Valerie. Retrieved from 26 Dennys, N. B. (1894). Descriptive dictionary of British Retrieved from Parliament of Singapore website. 43 For a recent musing on exploring local reefs, see Ross confirmed that mosquitoes were the vectors that 12 Walter, M. A. H. B., & Riaz Hassan (1977). An island Singapore Infopedia. Malaya (p. 99). London: London and China Telegraph. 36 Targeting nature lovers and the well-heeled. (2006, Torame, J. (2016). Notes on some outlying reefs and transmitted the microbes. community in Singapore: A characterization of 19 Lighters’ new mooring site. (1983, May 19). The Straits (Microfilm nos.: NL 7464, NL 25454) December 1). The Straits Times, p. 6. Retrieved from islands of Singapore. Mynah Magazine, 1. Retrieved 6 Untitled. (1848, November 2). The Singapore Free a marginal society (p. 22). Singapore: Chopmen Times, p. 17. Retrieved from NewspaperSG. 27 Legislative Council. (1902, December 13). The Straits NewspaperSG. from Indiegogo website. Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1835–1869), p. 1. Enterprises. (Call no.: RSING 301.4443 WAL) 20 Low, A., & Wong, K. C. (1984, December 11). The old Times, p. 5. Retrieved from NewspaperSG. 37 N. Sivasothi. (2005, June). The legacy of Pulau Seringat. Retrieved from NewspaperSG; Horsburgh, J. (1841). 13 Terumbu Raya still exists, and lies between Pulau men of the sea. The Straits Times, p. 18. Retrieved from 28 Gibson-Hill, C. A. (1957, December). Singapore Old Raffles Museum Newsletter, 4, p. 3. (Call no.: RSING India Directory, or, directions for sailing to and from the Sudong and Pulau Semakau. NewspaperSG. Strait & New Harbour, 1300–1870. Memoirs of the 069.095957 RMN)

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