PHT Newsletter Issue 94

Site Visit Report
Fort Cornwallis Lighthouse

Text by Marcia Howard
Images by Timothy Tye

A goodly group of about twenty men, women, and children gathered on Sunday, 1st June to inaugurate the new schedule of the first Sunday of the month as the day for Penang Heritage Trust site visits. The site chosen was the Fort Cornwallis Lighthouse, the oldest of the three Penang lighthouses. Eager to learn about this part of Penang's history, we gathered around Encik Muhamad Shafuan Mat Desa, one of the 24-hour security team at the lighthouse. He explained that the lighthouse section of Fort Cornwallis is under Federal jurisdiction, with the rest of the fort complex under State control. He added that the three Penang lighthouses in order of construction were at Fort Cornwallis, Muka Head and Pulau Rimau, all built between 1882-1884.

There are two towers on the Fort Cornwallis site. The main tower is not a building but a steel framework, with stairs up the outside leading to a small room with the beacon light. Above that is an observation deck reached by an interior metal ladder. Beside the main tower is another metal tower which can be ascended by a rope ladder with nibong-wood rungs; it is dangerous, however, to climb this ladder because the summit is populated by unfriendly and very territorial birds!

The eighty-odd steps to the top of the lighthouse are narrow. Only a handful of people may climb them at one time and the next group must wait until the preceding group returns. While we waited our turn, some of us fortified ourselves with sweet and savory snacks bought for our group. Others inspected the former lighthouse keeper's quarters, now a small museum. The principal items of interest there were the actual optics used for the light in bygone days. Still others checked out two huge buoys placed on the grounds and a massive Lister engine constructed in World War I to power the generator, which nowadays uses solar power. It seems that not so long ago a Japanese tourist offered to buy one of the buoys for a princely sum but was told the buoy was not for sale. We all posed for our obligatory group picture beside the buoys.

Going up and down the steps was difficult for some, as the stairs were open, and it made some of the members feel giddy to see the ground far below their feet. Nonetheless, most of the group clambered up and back down, and each group got a round of applause as it reached terra firma. PHT trustee Dato Anwar Fazal received the loudest applause because he was the first to go up and come down.

After the last Penang heritage lover came down, it was time to leave. As we said our good-byes to the staff, they gave us each a colorful souvenir tote bag containing a very nice poster of the three Penang lighthouses and a brochure with a map of all fourteen of Malaysia's lighthouses.