The First Navigation of Torres Strait

Extract

The voyage of Luis Baez de Torres in 1606 resulted in the discovery of the whole southern coast of New Guinea, and of the existence of a strait between Australia and New Guinea. These great geographical results were hidden from the world, and even from the Spanish realms, so completely that sufficient data on the voyage for general study has not been available until recently. The very brief report by Torres to the King was not found, copied, translated and published until 1806, exactly 200 years after the voyage; the four charts made during the voyage were published in 1878, and the long narrative by Prado was found by chance in London, translated, and published in 1929. Hundreds of documents of secondary importance were collated and published in 1965, but owing to the habit of historical writers of using older ‘authorities’ instead of original sources, many fallacies regarding the voyage have been perpetuated to the present day, and no doubt will be in the future. The present writer, working from photostat copies of the original reports and charts, has plotted the track of Torres' two vessels from island to island and point to point by interpreting the records, by navigational deduction and from a long experience of navigating ships through the very waters traversed by Torres. He has also made sketch surveys of uncharted areas and has studied the various rare charts, maps and globes compiled by different cartographers between 161 3 and 1700 from the three or four coastal charts drawn by Prado but missing from the archives since soon after the voyage.

The principal conclusion of this study is that Torres used Endeavour Strait to get clear of the innumerable islands and reefs which blocked his course to the west and was therefore in sight of the Australian coast for many days, a finding contested by several previous writers.