← Explore on the interactive map

Luis Váez de Torres

Type Figure Region Spanish Empire Time c. 1565–1607 Also known as Torres

Luis Váez de Torres (dates unknown, active 1605–1607), a Spanish royal navigator who sailed from Callao under Pedro Fernández de Quirós and passed th…

Timeline

  1. 1605–1606Callao · CallaoOn December 21, 1605, Torres commanded the roughly forty-ton San Pedro as second-in-command of Quirós's three-ship fleet, departing Callao in Peru to search for the southern continent. Along the way he was often sent ashore to islands; when Quirós turned northwest in the central Pacific, Torres objected, arguing the original southwest course held more promise of reaching southern lands.
  2. 1606Espiritu Santo · Espiritu SantoOn May 1, 1606, the fleet reached Espiritu Santo in present-day Vanuatu; Quirós believed he had found the southern continent and landed to establish a camp. Torres led his men ashore, and islanders were killed in the conflict. When the camp was abandoned at month's end, Quirós's ship was blown out of the bay and Torres failed to rendezvous; he then broke open his sealed orders: Diego de Prado was to nominally take command, and he was to explore south to 20°S, or if no land was found, sail to Manila. Actual command was exercised mainly by Torres.
  3. c. 1606Torres Strait · Torres StraitTorres first sailed south to about 21°S; finding no continent, he turned back, and unable to proceed north along New Guinea's east coast, he hugged its south coast westward, passing in October 1606 through the strait between present-day Australia and New Guinea. This voyage proved New Guinea to be an island rather than a northern peninsula of the southern continent. He noted large islands to the south but did not claim to have discovered Australia; some months earlier Janszoon had landed on the west coast of Cape York.
  4. 1607–1608Manila · ManilaIn May 1607 Torres sailed into Manila and submitted his voyage report to the governor; his signature still appears on related documents in 1608. Spain treated the waterway south of New Guinea as a secret and withheld it for a long time, until the eighteenth century when Dalrymple and others translated and introduced it from the archives, after which the strait became known on European charts under Torres's name. His own subsequent fate is unknown.

Sources