The Italian Merchant and Lexicographer Who Once Owned Pulau Bukom

Alex
Being an Italian ship chandlery, he also supplied Italian wines and vermouth. So, he would also, I mean, with different kinds of stores, you have specialty produce. So, he would also have some sort of technical equipment, like something to detect typhoons and also anti-malaria pills. 

These were things that were very necessary and popular in Asia as well. And many ships that would pass by the Straits of Malacca would need to restock, right? And of course, when you go to a ship chandlery, what you’re looking for is speed. You want to have maximum efficiency. So, you minimise your downtime while you dock. And so he became a very trusted name and had an office and warehouse near Cavenagh Bridge, which is near the mouth of the Singapore River. And he ended up being appointed to the Russian, French, German, Austrian, Spanish, Portuguese – all the countries – and Italian navies. So business was very, very brisk for Gaggino. 

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Jimmy
You’re listening to BiblioAsia+, a podcast produced by the National Library of Singapore. At BiblioAsia, we tell stories about Singapore’s past. Some familiar, others forgotten, all fascinating.

Today, when you talk about Italian in Singapore, you are typically trying to decide which restaurant to have dinner at and why not? Italian food is delicious, but late 19th century Singapore probably didn’t have a lot of Italian restaurants. What Singapore did have was a remarkable Italian entrepreneur who came here largely penniless, but subsequently made a name for himself.

Is he a millionaire merchant, ship owner and author? Giovanni Gaggino spent more than 40 years in Singapore, and in that time, he set up a successful shipyard. Gaggino briefly owned Pulau Bukom, invested in rubber and tin, and had business interests around Southeast Asia and perhaps most importantly, from the point of view of the library, he authored an Italian-Malay dictionary to tell us more about Giovanni Gaggino.

 The National Library's very own Alex Foo has written a fascinating account of this intrepid Italian’s life for BiblioAsia. Bongiorno, Alessandro. Benvenuti al podcast. BiblioAsia+ podcast.

Alex
Molto bene. Grazie, Jimmy. Thank you. I’m very happy to be here.

Jimmy
Wonderful. Bellissimo. And of course, I’ve just run out of all my Italian. But tell me, you wrote a really interesting story about Don Gaggino. How did you find out about him? He’s not a well-known guy.

Alex
Yeah. So, I read Jerome Lim’s wonderful, “Long and Winding Road” blog many years ago, but I was reminded of it when my friend sent me that same article. And he said, this sounds like it would speak to your interest in Italian, which I was learning and [doing] cross-cultural exchanges. And then I got very interested in this dictionary that [Gaggino] had written, which I found out was in the National Library’s collection.

So, I just decided to dig further into this book. 

Jimmy
What makes him interesting?

Alex
Yeah. So, Giovanni Gaggino – what a wonderful name, right? He was born in 1846, in Varazze. So Varazze is a small Italian town in the crescent shaped region of Liguria. This is sort of the northwestern coast, and Liguria is also where pesto comes from.

Jimmy
Oh, that’s very important.

Alex
Very important. And two interesting points, I guess. The first is that [Gaggino], as you said, wrote an Italian-Malay dictionary, which is kind of incredible for a businessman. And he dedicated this to Sultan Abu Bakar of Johore. And the second thing is that he was also a very, very successful businessman who supplied water, coal and all sorts of sundry goods. He also once owned Pulau Bukom, which, of course, we now know to have been Shell’s largest wholly owned oil refinery. 

Jimmy
Why and how did Gaggino come to Singapore in 1874?

Alex
It’s quite the journey, right from Italy to Singapore in 1874. So, what we know is that the death of his father left his family in pretty dire straits. And he was also a polyglot who spoke many, many languages. I mean, we’re talking Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and English. So English was what he had learned when his father very wisely sent him to England at the age of 14, because he knew this was going to be the lingua franca of commerce. 

And he even spoke Malay because he had visited Singapore, in the early ’70s. So he hoped to work as an interpreter in the multicultural part of Singapore. And I think that’s why when, after the death of his father, looking for opportunities, he decided to set sail for a country that was multicultural and promised new opportunities.

Jimmy
What was the Italian presence in Singapore like in the late 19th century?

Alex
The Italian presence was very, very small in the late 19th century. We’re talking about, roughly about 290 Italians, between 1883 and 1897.

Jimmy
And how many Italian restaurants were there?

Alex
Oh, well, I would like to know. I have to look into NewspapersSG.

Jimmy
Why would he be here?

Alex
The majority of them had come from other eastern regions, so they were already in the area. But some of them were, of course, missionaries coming from Italy, and the rest were then also be likely businessmen. But in terms of the relative presence compared to other, you know, other European countries, of course, it’s very minuscule compared to the British and the Dutch, etc. 

Jimmy
And he came to Singapore and he set up a ship chandlery. For the people, like maybe myself, who may not know exactly what a ship chandlery is, tell us more about that side of his business.

Alex
So, ship chandlery is basically, your marine provision shops? Yeah. So, they provide goods and services. 

Jimmy
Sounds more exciting when you call it a chandlery.

Alex
I know! It’s such a nice name. They provided food, fuel, water, coal and technical equipment. And all sorts of sundry goods.

Jimmy
They needed a one-stop place. 

Alex
Absolutely. And in Gaggino’s case, being an Italian ship chandlery, he also supplied Italian wines and vermouth. So, you know, with different kinds of stores, you have special specialty produce. So he would also have some sort of technical equipment like something to detect typhoons and also anti-malaria pills.

These were things that were very necessary and popular in Asia as well. And many ships that would pass by the Straits of Malacca would need to restock. And, of course, when you go to a ship chandlery, what you’re looking for is speed, you want to have maximum efficiency.

So, you minimise your down time while you dock. And so, [Gaggino] became a very, very trusted name. [He] had an office and warehouse near Cavenagh Bridge, which is near the mouth of the Singapore River. And he ended up being appointed to the Russian, French, German, Austrian, Spanish, Portuguese – all the countries – and Italian navies.

So business was very, very brisk for Gaggino. He really was very successful in building up this enterprise of his.

Jimmy
It sounds like the fact that he was a polyglot, probably.

Alex
Yeah, I can imagine. 

Jimmy
I mean, so they’re able to talk shop with people and create relationships. How did he end up owning Pulau Bukom and what happened?

Alex
So, as we know, Pulau Bukom is the small island that is south of Singapore between Jurong Island and Sentosa. Pulau Bukom was formerly known as Freshwater Island because of a freshwater well that was on it. So, he purchased it for $500, and he used it to supply passing ships with drinking water. And this is because Pulau Bukom had the advantage of having a very deep-sea waterfront. So that meant ships could go quite close. And so he used this to provide fresh water to passing navies and ships. And later he would sell it for six times the price – in 1891 at $3,000. And he would sell [Pulau Bukom] to none other than the agent for the company that would become Shell.

So, that’s kind of the hidden history of Pulau Bukom that we don’t really know of because mostly we think about Shell and the community that started to develop in Pulau Bukom. I discovered in the course of my research that people who live on Bukom are called Bukomites.

Jimmy
What other business was [Gaggino] involved in? I mean, obviously he started a few Italian restaurants of his own.

Alex
He had a line of steamers. He was a director of a student cook line of steamers. And so he would purchase ships and sometimes not so new ships. Right, sometimes [he would buy] old ships and then have a priest baptise them by the harbour. He was also developing, near the end of his life, rubber plantations in Thailand. 

He purchased over 250 hectares of land in 1910. He also founded Mutual Trading Limited to develop shipping trade with neighbouring colonies. And he was just a huge traveller. He’d be running all around Southeast Asia, even going up to Yangtze River in China and even went as far as Vladivostok in Russia. So, you know, always looking for economic opportunities, not just in Singapore but also in the wider region.

Jimmy
Okay. Now, my Malay is not terribly good. My Italian is much worse, but Gaggino wrote a dictionary. Will this dictionary help me with my Italian? Or my Malay? And what is the name of this dictionary?

Alex
So, in 1884, he wrote – I’m going to take a breath here – The Dizionario Italiano e Malese: Preceduto da un Manuale Pratico di Conversazione per Servire D’interprete al Viaggiatore che Vista e Traffica con la Malesia.    

Jimmy
Molto bene. But, un momento. What does that mean?

Alex
Okay, the long title is “The Italian-Malay Dictionary, preceded by a practical guide to serve, as an interpreter for the visitor who is visiting and trading with Malaya”.

Jimmy
Oh, okay. So, it is very practical.

Alex
Absolutely. I think he had no illusions that this would be a scholarly kind of endeavor. He wanted this to be a very practical, useful handbook, for visitors who would be travelling in the region and using Malay would be so vital for communication in the region. He dedicated this [the dictionary] to the Sultan.

And he described this very unique endeavor as a little grain, granellino, which is, kind of a reference to the parable of the mustard seed, something small that will end up growing to be very, very big. And so he had hoped that this book would really serve to expand commercial ties between Italy and Malaya.

Jimmy
And it was published in Singapore?

Alex
It was published in Singapore by Dino Dyer Press in 1884.

Jimmy
But presumably then, was the market in Singapore or in Italy?

Alex
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think he definitely sold some copies here because it was published here. But we also have first editions that are in Italy as well. And he would later publish a second edition that became more widely distributed. And that’s the one that the National Library owns. So that is from 1915.

Jimmy
And the difference between the two is that…?

Alex
The second edition is an expanded edition, as with most second editions. But the difference with the second edition is that it's not just dictionary Italiano in malese, but it's a dictionary Italiano in malese [Malay]. In malese, Italia Italiano, which means it’s bi-directional. So you have it from Italian to Malay, Malay to Italian. It also provides romanised Malay because [Gaggino] said a lot of people in Singapore were starting to read romanised Malay.

So he took away the Jawi and the preface in the second edition. Actually, what he really describes is a renewed impetus to seize economic opportunities. So, this is presumably addressing an Italian audience. He describes Malaya as this new world, Nuevo Mundo, after the discovery of America. He says this because it’s full of rich natural resources. So, he’s telling people to come to Malaya to profit, to forge businesses. And the second edition you asked about, any differences. The second thing to note is that there are many, many advertisements for Gaggino and his ship chandler sprinkled throughout the book. So this is him again, being a very, inveterate businessman trying to kind of promote himself, promote his company, tie his company to the kinds of trade and all of that stuff in Singapore.

And what was really interesting to me when I was going through the book is that at the very final page, you have the Latin phoenix for the end of the book, but then right above “Finis” [the end], taking up half the page is this giant mosquito, which I found absolutely bizarre because it’s just like this flattened mosquito. And below it says, “the mosquito, propagator of malaria fever”. So that’s like a warning. It’s like, why are you warning people about malaria if you want them to come and trade in Singapore? And then I did some digging and found this must be compared to, like, the mosquito side-by-side and actually this mosquito and I was comparing like, the leg positions and all.

It has an uncanny resemblance to the packaging of Esanofele, which is this anti-malarial pill that he sold through Gaggino and Co., and I think possibly it was maybe like a very famous anti-malarial cure back in the day. So, maybe it’s some sort of link to how this is the problem. But he also has a solution, some sort of indirect allusion to that. I don’t know, but it’s just like, very strange and very interesting that he has this giant mosquito at the end of the book.

Jimmy
But you’ve got to give him credit, right? For not missing any opportunities.

Alex
Absolutely, absolutely.

Jimmy
We should all be so smart. Tell me about Gaggino’s life. Did he die in Singapore? Did he die in Italy? Did he ever go back?

Alex
He made Singapore his home base. But he did go back to Italy periodically, back to his hometown, to Genoa, to Liguria. But he did not die in Singapore. He was travelling in Indonesia and Jakarta when he got ill. And he died at the age of 72.

Jimmy
He’s buried in Jakarta.

Alex
Yeah. I don’t actually know that, we would be very interested to know. He died childless. And he was unmarried.

Jimmy
And you write about it, the plans for his estate in his will, but they didn’t really come to fruition. What happened?

Alex
His estate was worth $2.5 million in 1918.

Jimmy
That sounds like a lot of money, even now.

Alex
Yeah, a lot of money. It’s 1918, right? He had his commercial holdings that he liquidated, his real estate holdings also liquidated, I guess, fun fact, he had two seaside bungalows in Tanjong Rhu, which he named, Villa Alba and Villa Terra Monti, which is dawn and dusk and very kind of romantic sounding.

Jimmy
Very much so. Do they still exist?

Alex
I don’t think so. I’m quite sure they’re like condominiums now or something. In Singapore, he left a philanthropic legacy. He left money to the pauper hospital, left money to the French and Portuguese convents and the Masonic lodge.

But he really wanted his legacy to be in Italy. He had amassed a lot of curios across his travels. He wanted to set up a museum in Vernazza, his hometown, but a lot of legal drama ensued. And the Italian courts and the town basically ended up not really creating this museum for him.

So, it’s kind of a sad story because he had amassed all of these wonderful collections, but they ended up kind of being dispersed throughout. And you don’t really have his descendants, you know, in the way that you have famous immigrants whose descendants still live and work in Singapore. So that doesn’t really exist. And you don’t really have visual proof of like, [his] old house, etc., because of our development.

And I would compare this to another famous Italian, this guy called Rodolfo Noli, who is a sculptor who, of course, carved the pediment of the old Supreme Court that is now the National Gallery Singapore. So his works, you can still see, right? You can kind of see traces of his legacy in front of Fullerton Hotel as well.

But it’s good. You know, in terms of his kind of impact, he contributed to these philanthropic organisations. But, ultimately not much of a trace here.

Jimmy
Oh, that's very sad, but it’s been immortalised in the pages of BiblioAsia. And also, of course, “The Long and Winding Road”. Shout out to Jerome for that excellent resource.

Tell us about the research process. What did you know of him to begin with? Where did you go to find all the information that you subsequently unearthed?

Alex
So, a lot of sources were in Italian. A lot of Italian journals would have some talk about [Gaggino] through the context of linguistics, interest in a dictionary. Between the Italian-Malay dictionary, some of it in the context of cross-cultural encounters. There are other Italian explorers who ventured into Southeast Asia. One of them is his cousin, Giovanni Battista Cerruti, who would go to Perak and write a book about the indigenous Sakai tribe.

Jimmy
Okay.

Alex
So, you know, really a family of explorers and travellers. So a lot of it was reading some secondary sources in Italian.

Jimmy
Which are not available in Singapore.

Alex
I know. So thankfully, thanks to the internet, I have them online. And [thanks] to wonderful libraries abroad as well. Primary sources wise, it would be the first and second edition of the dizionario [dictionary]. The first is very wonderfully digitised by university in Tokyo, which I discovered. And then the latter, which we have, was in microfilm and thankfully digitised. So I didn’t have to scroll through the microfilm on level 11. And, of course, NewspaperSG was incredible because it allowed you to find all of his business dealings. It would also record when he would leave, on a ship and in return, as well as all these other kinds of interesting stories about how he baptised the ship, etc. So and, of course, his obituary, which described a lot of things about his life.

Jimmy
So you’re now in the partnership division of the National Library Board. What do you do? Do you look for partners, you partner people up?

Alex
Yeah. We partner people and forge partnerships with Italians. We forge strategic partnerships with local and international partners. SPH media, but also embassies, like you said, to enhance NLB’s collections and capabilities. I was also involved and coordinated some of the NLB30 initiatives. This being the year [2025] of the NLB’s 30th anniversary as a statutory board.

And so I’ve organised something like, “Open Book”, the NLB 30 keynotes, which is about gathering thought leaders to talk about the future of reading and learning. So that’s some of the stuff I do.

Jimmy
Mamma Mia! What an amazing career. Tell me, how is it that you’re so interested in Italian? You actually speak Italian?

Alex
Yeah. So, I speak to my tutor in Italian.

Jimmy
Learning Italian formally.

Alex
Yes, yes. I got started in university. I did art history in university and started to specialise in the Italian Renaissance. So, I, of course, had to read a lot of material and the kind of Italian I was learning was very niche. And not useful everyday conversation. I like Italian food.

Jimmy
Is it like medieval Italian or... Yeah. Oh, I could be academic.

Alex
Yeah. More like, this terminology to describe cornices. You know, pediments and that sort of stuff. Okay. And then during Covid, I took a class, a year-long class on The Divine Comedy, which we read in Italian and English. So that was a really wonderful experience – to spend that time four hours a week to through how you went through a dark, a dark wood, during Covid.

The language is a beautiful language. And that’s why I decided to tunnel in and start to, you know, learn it in my free time.

Jimmy
Fantastic. Can I ask you – this is a very important question – what’s your favourite Italian dish?

Alex
Oh, yeah, that’s a great question.

Jimmy
It is lasagna. No, it is spaghetti bolognese.

Alex
It’s some sort of pasta dish. I like pasta alla Norma, which is eggplant. Oh, but that vodka sauce is always good.

Jimmy
Okay. And where in Italy have you been to?

Alex
I haven’t really been south of Rome. I did spend two months in Venice, in university. That’s kind of, I guess, where I caught the bug. So Venice. Florence. Rome. Parma. Vicenza. Padua.

Jimmy
Are you planning to go to Liguria?

Alex
Yes. I need to go to Liguria and I need to go to the south. I need to go to Sicily. And Naples. Yeah. So, to come. In the future.

Jimmy
Yeah. Well, okay. Let me ask you. You work for the library, so, I’d like you to complete a sentence. Libraries are…

Alex
Libraries are underestimated. Underestimated by what it can offer to people. And how much it can serve as a place of discovery. And communion with others and to escape the self. Since we’re talking Italian, you know, Machiavelli, the famous Italian writer.

Jimmy
And other famous ones.

Alex
Yes. He wrote this letter when he was in exile, and he talked about how he would enter his study and how that’s when he would commune with the greats. And it was this idea of shedding all of the labours of the day and, entering a place of serenity and equality with the writers of antiquity. And I think that’s like a nice vision of how a library can take you outside of yourself into something that is bigger than you.

Jimmy
I think Machiavelli obviously didn’t have Netflix. If he did, he wouldn’t have written The Prince.

Alex
Yes. That’s unfortunate, but probably true.

Jimmy
Bellissimo, grazie. Alessandro, thank you for coming on the BiblioAsia+ podcast, we’re really pleased to have you. To read more about Giovanni Gaggino, you have to read Alex’s article, and you can find it on biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg. Alexandro, grazie. “From Liguria to the Lion City: The Life and Times of Giovanni Gaggino”.

Alex
Grazie, Jimmy.

Jimmy
And we hope that you will write more for us, and I really think that we are missing the history of Italian restaurants.

Alex
You’ll have to sponsor. Sponsor that, and then we can talk. Okay?

Jimmy
All right. It’s a deal. Thank you, Alex.

Alex
Thank you, Jimmy.

[Music playing]

Jimmy
If you’ve enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast and the BiblioAsia newsletter. Thanks for joining us on BiblioAsia+.

Alex Foo, “From Liguria to the Lion City: The Life and Times of Giovanni Gaggino,” BiblioAsia 21, no.3 (October–December 2025).

This episode of BiblioAsia Podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Alex for coming on the show.

The BiblioAsia Podcast by the National Library Singapore tells stories about Singapore history.