Lumut is a coastal town (population 31,880) in the state of Perak, Malaysia, situated about 84 km from Ipoh, 12 km from the town of Sitiawan and it is the gateway to Pangkor Island. It is a quaint little town famous for its beautiful seashell and coral handicrafts. This once little-known fishing town has since become the Lumut home base of the Royal Malaysian Navy.
Lumut in Malay means moss, lichen, or seaweed. In its early days, the beach is said to be rich in moss, so the local people called it Lumut. Lumut jetty now is the staging-off point to various beautiful offshore islands, including Pangkor Island.
In the early days, Lumut was a sheltered natural jetty. A large Hock Chew community eventually docked there and made its way to Sitiawan. The estuary at that time was characterised by damp mossy soils on reddish earth. Tin and lumber from as far as Kinta were transported here by elephants and sampans.
On 9 June 1993, the New Straits Times reported that the Malaysian Government had plans to upgrade the capability of the Naval Dockyard Sdn Bhd to enable it to build medium sized patrol vessels. As of that date, six U.S. Navy warships had been repaired by the dockyard at a cost of RM 1.6 million. The warships were the USS Sioux, USS Tuscaloosa, USS Fort McHenry, USS Schenectady, USS Rushmore, and USS Reid.