Saturday, April 5, 2008
Tanjong Katong Fort and Katong Park
HistoryConstructed in 1879, Tanjong Katong Fort was part of a series of defensive batteries and fortifications along the south coast of Singapore, which was meant to defend the eastern areas of Singapore, like the Singapore Harbour, Singapore Town and New Harbour, now known as Keppel Harbour. The fort was supposedly built to defend Singapore against possible Russian invasion in Asia. It initially carried an elevated battery with three 7-inch muzzle-loading guns along with magazines and bombproof shelters built between the gun emplacements. The battery was surrounded by mangrove piles and a wet ditch measuring 100 feet on the flanks. The fort was sitting atop a wet, low-lying coconut plantation and occupied an area of approximately two hectares. The battery was surrounded by a ditch measuring 100 feet wide on the flanks. It was completed by local contractors within 12 months. The fort's garrison included members of the Singapore Volunteer Artillery (SVA) that held regular gun drills and their annual training camps at the fort. In 1885, works began on upgrading the existing gun batteries in Singapore, and the three-gun battery at Tanjong Katong was replaced with a pair of more powerful and longer range breech-loading Mark VII 8-inch (200 mm) guns.
Problems that led to the fort to be abandoned
Beset by problems from the start, the Fort Tanjong Katong was nicknamed the "Wash-out Fort". Due to the soft ground, each time the guns were fired, the range finding equipment would shake, and would need to be recalibrated. To make matters worse, it was difficult to find the ammunition for the new 8-inch (200 mm) guns as it was not common in Singapore. The remoteness of the site, which hindered supply and reinforcement, reduced the effectiveness of Fort Tanjong Katong as a defensive position. Barely five years after upgrades were completed in 1888, it was suggested the fort be demolished. Debates over the fort lingered on between the Colonial Defence Committee in London, and the Local Defence Committee in Singapore for nearly a decade. The fort was finally rendered obsolete and abandoned in 1901 when the guns were removed. Instead of destroying the fort, the British thought it simpler to bury it, which was done sometime after World War I. A portion of a bastion was still visible above ground well into the 1960s, when a public park was built atop the fort for the fast-growing Katong suburbs. In the late 1960s, the bastion was finally buried when land reclamation in the East Coast took place, and its memory was soon forgotten in the ensuing decades.
Rediscovery
In 2001, the outline of the top of the bastion wall became visible during a dry spell; this prompted a Katong resident, Jack Sim, to seek out the relevant authorities to investigate its origins. Despite much public discussion and interest generated by the discovery, it was not until in 2004 that the Singapore government finally approached a team of archaeologists to excavate the forgotten fort. The excavation began on 29 September 2004, led by a handful of archaeologists and dedicated archaeology volunteers. Nearly 2 metres down, the volunteers uncovered significant remains of the fort still in situ—a pair of infantry bastions that did not appear in the original plans, the perimeter of the moat's inner escarpment and what appears to be the drawbridge superstructure. The fort had protection all around—and it was considered one of Singapore's most important archaeological finds. However, today, Katong Park is restored to its original looks as the forts were once again buried.
Inference
The fort was built on the edge of the seaside. From the positioning of Katong park, which was once Tanjong Katong Fort, we can see how far back the coastlines were before reclaimation. Therefore, Katong would have been a smaller place until the reclamation of land which led to the development of East Coast Park