What famous explorer had the surname 'de Torres'?

Answer 1

It was Luis de Torres (full name Luis Váez de Torres) from Portugal, Spain, Galicia or Holland who discovered the western coast of Australia. Saavedra's Isle, more commonly known as Papua New Guinea (the small country on top of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia) was also discovered by this explorer who lived in the late 1600s. The body of water between northern Australia (Cape York Peninsula, as mentioned before) and Saavedra's Isle was founded by Torres, which is why this water mass is called the Torres Strait and the inhabitants of the island near the strait called Torres Strait Islanders, being the people of the Torres Strait Island. His expedition was worth it - because now (but he probably doesn't know this) 3 things are named after him - a strait, an island and the inhabitants of that island.

Also see Luis Vaz/Váez de Torres on Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. This website is the second match if you type Luis Váez de Torres (or Luis Vaez de Torres) into the Google/iGoogle search engine, and the first match if you type Luis Váz de Torres (or Luis Vaz de Torres) into the same search engine. If you type his name without the middle name into the same search engine, the website will come up as the third match.

Answer 2

The famous explorer who had the surname 'de Torres' was Luís Vaz de Torres. He was a Spanish navigator who is credited with the discovery of the Strait of Torres, which separates Australia and New Guinea.