Knowra Luís Vaz de Torres Luís Vaz de Torres Luís Vaz de Torres was a Portuguese navigator serving the Spanish Crown who commanded an expedition through the strait between New Guinea and Australia in 1606.
Pedro Fernandes de Queirós : A Portuguese navigator in Spanish service who led a 1605 expedition into the Pacific in search of Terra Australis. Torres sailed as second-in-command on Queirós’s Pacific expedition.
Navigation : The practice of determining and controlling a vessel’s position and course. Torres’s passage depended on steering through unfamiliar waters using early modern navigation.
Portuguese Empire : A maritime empire established by Portugal through overseas exploration, trade, and colonization. Torres was Portuguese, though he served the Spanish Crown on this voyage.
European exploration of Australia : The voyages by Europeans that charted and documented the Australian continent and its surrounding waters. Torres passed close to Australia’s northern coast, though his voyage did not map the continent.
Torres expedition : The 1605–1606 Spanish Pacific voyage led by Pedro Fernandes de Queirós and continued by Luís Vaz de Torres. Torres took command after Queirós’s departure and led the expedition onward.
Dead reckoning : A method of estimating position from a previous fix, course, speed, and elapsed time. Before reliable longitude, estimates like these helped navigators track progress across open water.
Iberian Union : The dynastic union of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns from 1580 to 1640. The union made Portuguese service in Spanish imperial ventures less exceptional in Torres’s era.
Pedro de Prado : A Spanish officer who accompanied Torres and later helped prepare an account and map of the voyage. Prado’s records helped preserve evidence of the crossing for later historians.
Torres Strait : The sea passage between the Cape York Peninsula of Australia and the island of New Guinea. Torres’s passage through this strait gave it its European name.
Sailing directions : Written instructions describing routes, hazards, landmarks, and procedures for navigating particular waters. The voyage’s surviving account preserves observations useful for reconstructing Torres’s route.
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