As the traffic of the Port increased, congestion in the Singapore River set in and the lighterage of cargo became a problem.

The situation was further aggravated in 1845 when the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P & 0) inaugurated its first scheduled steamship service through Singapore. There was no wharfage, and coal, which was used for bunkering the steam vessels of that period, had to be laboriously brought in by sailing lighters and stored in the Singapore River and then brought out again whenever a steamer arrived.

Unfavourable weather conditions would hold up bunkering operations and inevitably several hundred tons of coal were lost when lighters were swamped by heavy seas. The answer lay in a deep water berth and, following a hydrographic survey of Keppel Harbour (then known as New Harbour) in 1849, the P & 0 Company opened their coal-bunkering pier at Tebing Tinggi in 1852. Keppel Harbour which was later destined to become the major gateway of the Port of Singapore was thus opened.

From the onset, ocean shipping favoured the Keppel wharves while coastal shipping continued to anchor off the Singapore River. Transhipment cargo would then be transported overland along the I V2 mile route between Keppel Harbour and Boat Quay.

This plan of New Harbour, prepared by the office of the Surveyor-General, Singapore, shows the development of the wharves, docks and roads on the northern shore of Keppel Harbour from 1840 to 1886.

Development of Keppel Harbour was rapid over the next fifty years. Jardine, Matheson &, the Borneo Co and John Purvis & Son opened up their wharves, warehouses and coal stores along the stretch east of Tanjong Aur (St James). When the Patent Slip & Dock Co opened Singapore’s first dry dock at Pantai Chermin followed by the Tanjong Pagar Dock Co’s Victoria Dock close to the Tanjong Pagar promontary. At Pulau Brani the Bon Accord Dock was opened by the firm of Buyers & Robb while a coal depot was established there by the British Navy.

With these developments some 3,000 ft of wharves became available and as a succession of shipping lines like William Thomson & Co, Messageries Imperiales, Ocean Steam Ship Co., Lloyd Triestino and the Calcutta & Burmah Navigation Co inaugurated regular steamship services through the Port of Singapore, the tonnage of shipping rose from 375,000 NRT in 1860 to 650,000 NRT in 1870.

The greatest impetus to the increase in steamship tonnage was however due to the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869, following which steamships were no longer required to follow the tortuous route round the Cape. By 1870 the aggregate tonnage of steamers calling at the Port had exceeded that of sailing ships. In 1880 the total tonnage of shipping had risen to 1.5 million NRT with steamships aggregating 1.2 million NRT. Then with additional shipping lines like Norddeutscher Lloyd, Rotterdamsche Lloyd, Straits Steamship Co, KQninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, Wilh. Wilhelmsen, Nippon Yusen Kaisha and the East Asiatic Co inaugurating regular scheduled services, the total shipping tonnage rose to 5.7 million NRT in 1900.