Sembawang Park
Sembawang Park (Chinese: 三巴旺公园; ) is a 15-hectare park situated in Sembawang, in the north of Singapore facing the Straits of Johor overlooking Malaysia. It is located at the end of Sembawang Road, where the former Sembawang Road End Bus Terminal was. History Sembawang Park got its name from the Sembawang Tree (Malay for Mesua Ferruginea). There is one Sembawang tree at the centre of the car park C1 close to the Sembawang Bus terminal. The Sembawang park has many interesting connections to Singapore's historical past. The pathways inside the park are old roads, that have recently been repaved with asphalt. Singapore Naval Base Located on the west of the park is the Sembawang Shipyard, which was His Majesty's Naval Base (HM Naval Base) of the British Royal Navy from the 1920s until Singapore's independence. The busy and geographically advantaged port in Singapore and the urgent need for a naval base made the British decide to establish a Naval Base in Singapore. In 1923, the construction of Naval Base began in Sembawang and was completed in 1938. In between it slowed due to the Naval Disarmament Treaty. The fully operational Naval Base was opened by Sir Shenton Thomas, the then Singapore Governor on 14 February 1938; it was the largest Dockyard outside the British Naval Base. The battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse with four destroyers forming the "Z" force landed in Singapore's Naval Base on 2 December 1941. Following the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese also bought Johore coastlines just opposite the Naval Base and attacked the two warships unexpectedly. The two warships sank on 10 December 1941, in whose memory a Sembawang Memorial was unveiled in Sembawang wharves in 2005. The Dockyard was closed down in January 1942 realising that Japanese could use the Naval Base. The British surrendered to Japanese on 15 February 1942, whose details could be found much more from Memories at Old Ford Factory museum where the surrender was signed. For the following three years, until 1945, the Japanese used the naval base to service and repair their navy ships. On 6 September 1945, the Japanese surrendered to the British in Sembawang fleet shore accommodation, now called HMS Terror. From 1968, the naval base was converted and came to use as Sembawang Shipyard. The attacks and operations of the Naval Base at Sembawang are closely connected to the Jetty, Pier and accommodation at the Sembawang Park itself. Attractions Sembawang Jetty In the 1940s, the British started building a 30m long jetty, and later abandoned it during the Japanese occupation. The Japanese completed the construction of the jetty. The private jetty stands in complete shape only from the efforts of these once warring colonial forces. Now, it is a popular fishing ground. Seletar Pier Seletar Pier was used for transport of construction materials during Naval Base construction in the early 1920s. On 20 January 1942, the pier was bombed by Japanese, and only the remains of the Seletar pier stands at