I grew up by the Singapore River. My father rented a small room akin to a room size of HDB flat from a shophouse owner on Hill Street, about 50 metre from the Coleman Bridge. In the first 19 years of my life with the family of six, I witnessed the busy activities on the river and the daily lives of the boatmen.
I
liked to stand on the Coleman Bridge, looking at twakows manoeuvring in the
water. I admired coolies walking on wooden planks between those boats and the
river banks with heavy rice sacks loaded on their shoulders. I always wondered
what if those planks broke in half but never happened. In the later years, some
of those cargoes were unloaded by lifting trucks. I missed those busy and
lively scenes.
During the foundation years of the colonial era 200 years ago, Indian boat builders came with the British East India Company and built small Indian Tongkangs. These small wooden boats were propelled by paddles and wooden poles.
When Chinese business flourished in the second half of the 19th century, the Chinese ventured into the wooden boat business and constructed larger tongkang and twakow. As tongkang became larger, the Cavanagh Bridge at the mouth of the Singapore River constrained them from entering. Chinese tongkangs were usually berthed at the Kallang River or Beach Road near the Kallang River mouth.
Warehouses at the river banks mainly stored gambier, rice, tea leaves and dairy products. Whampoa Ice House once sat at Hill Street and River Valley Road junction next to Coleman Bridge. In the 1840s Hoo Ah Kay (Mr Whampoa) imported ice cubes from the US but the business did not turn up well. The Ice House was closed after a few years of misadventure.
People did everything on the river – work, live, play and shit. There were medical halls, roadside hawkers, barbers, New Market, charcoal shops etc. You name it, they had it. Charcoals shipped from Indonesia and unloaded by the river. That gave rise to the name “charcoal berth” (柴船头). There were even Teochew opera stages built on the river. At night some coolies preferred to stay on the boats or under the bridges than in the coolie quarters (估俚间). Coolie quarters were congested, dirty and smelly.
The loss of the last
two twakows
The last two twakows, built in 1868 and 1972, on the Singapore River had gone in mid-2023. These boats were used as floating restaurants since 1993 and seemed to be affected badly by Covid 19 lockdown.
According to a spokesman for the historical precinct CQ@Clarke Quay owned by the subsidiaries of CapitaLand, these twakows deteriorated to such an extent that beyond repair and technically difficult to preserve.
In early June 2023, one of the boats had been towed to Kallang Riverside Park to dismantle. The second boat was making its way too one month later.
The Straits Times (June 27, 2023) reported, these boats went through refurbishment more than 10 years ago with over S$1 million. Looking at the current states of the two twakows, it was beyond imagination that their hull conditions degraded so badly within such a short period after “proper restoration works” were carried out. The only probable possibility was refurbished with substandard materials and workmanship, especially the skilled wooden boat builders, repairers and workers phased out from the local scene in the 1980s.
The significance of
Twakows
Twakows, also commonly grouped under the
generic term “lighters”, were once the lifeline of the Singapore River,
bridging seagoing cargo vessels and godowns by transporting goods between them.
Twakows played an important role in supporting the domestic economy of the
past.
Twakows were built by wooden boat yards at the banks of the Kallang River. There were repair shacks set up along Beach Road, under the Merdeka Bridge, as well as Pulau Saigon and Kim Seng Bridge at the upper reach of the Singapore River.
Twakows were built without any design drawing. They are a fusion of wisdom, science and craftsmanship. I do not think we can find something identical in design and construction methods in other parts of the world. The combination of the river and Twakows is uniquely Singaporean. Today only a few twakows are left and are countable using one hand. I have seen one plying between Pandan River and Marina Pier.
With warehouses set up along the banks of the Singapore River, lighters became the key asset to bridge the seagoing ships and riverside godowns. Singapore had about 3,000 wooden lighters during its heyday. Their presence will serve as a reminder of the legacy of our nation. They may turn into a floating museum, for example. The nation will leave with pure imagination with the loss of the remaining cargo-carrying wooden boats.
The bows of these wooden boats are either Red or Green, red for Teochew and green for Hokkien. Twakow is “tua-go” in Teochew, “tua-gor” in Hokkien. Cantonese called them “big-eye rooster” (大眼鸡) because there are a pair of eyes at the bow to recognise their way home.
Such unique creations, if present, will help to keep the depth of our nation alive beyond San Nila Utama and Stamford Raffles.
Flag system
To complement the river shoreline, a complex flag system was in place on Fort Canning Hill that was used to signal the arrival of ships. The workers would rush out by boats to reach the ships first so that they could stake a claim on unloading the goods and bringing them to shore.
The flagstaff on Fort Canning Hill and Mt. Faber speaks a lot about Singapore’s maritime trade. Not long after the founding of modern Singapore, boats from the eastern and western parts of the world anchored outside the esplanade. The flagstaff on Fort Canning Hill provided pertinent information on boats’ arrival, departure, identity, location, etc. With the development of New Harbour, the flagstaff on Mt. Faber did exactly the same.
Works by the river were not benign for the coolies, mostly Chinese. One side of those wooden planks rested on the boats and another side on the river banks. Workers carried rice sacks, coffee beans and dairy products, among others, probably loaded 100 kati (60 kg) or more on their shoulders while crossing the river. When I was young, I thought the planks would break at any time. However, they did not. The flipping rhythm helped to “reduce weight” in a way.
When unloaded, the coolies would put a chopstick into a can. Chopsticks were to account for the goods that were carried. The coolies were paid accordingly.
River shoreline
Some people called the rounded portion of the boat quay the “belly of the carp”. I had never heard that term before until recent years. I would think it is “the tummy of the laughing Buddha”, a lucky sign of fortune and wealth. Many Chinese businesses flourished here and fuelled the river’s popularity.
In 1822, Sir Stamford Raffles inaugurated Singapore’s first land reclamation project along the south bank of the Singapore River. The purpose was to set up a commercial centre there. The Commercial Square was later developed into Raffles Place.
Where did immigrants
land?
Immigrants first landed at the seaside along Telok Ayer Street before the land was reclaimed. Johnston’s Pier was constructed in the 1850s for sea travellers' convenient arrival and departure. The pier was opposite the Fullerton Hotel today. Johnston’s Pier was replaced by the nearby Clifford Pier in the 1930s.
The development of the New Harbour was a slow
process. In the 1860s, dry docks and warehouses for coal were built in
anticipation of steamships’ arrival. Coolies would replenish tons of coal for
the ships for their next journey. Only in the late 19th century, European
travellers from large steamships would depart from the New Harbour. They would
experience the city by “jalan tepi laut”, aka skirting
the seashore.
Since the 1830s, Chinese immigrants formed the majority in Singapore. They were mainly coolies at that time. By the early 20th century, the Chinese formed about three-quarters of the total population. Looking back, this was mainly due to Singapore having evolved into a harbour city from global import and export trading. It provided job opportunities for young men from the rural peasants of China. In the later years, young women came and joined the workforce as construction workers and domestic servants.
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