XII 



Torres Straits 



IN 1606 a Spanish Expedition which had set out from Peru 

 under Quiros was in the South-West Pacific. The ships be- 

 came separated and eventually one of these, commanded by 

 Luis Vaez de Torres, passed through a reef-encumbered passage 

 between that part of Australia now known as the Cape York 

 Peninsula, and New Guinea. The second European to pass through 

 these straits was Captain Cook, who landed with Mr. Banks upon 

 a small island which he described as 'mostly barren rock fre- 

 quented by birds such as boobies'. It was as he returned to the 

 ship on this occasion that he noticed the south-westerly swell and 

 realised that he was now 'westward of Carpentaria' and that he 

 had passed through Torres' strait. Cook named this bare island 

 'Booby Island' . 



In 1944 the thoughts of both the British and the U.S. Navies 

 ti.irned upon Torres Straits. The remaining passages between the 

 Indian and the Pacific Oceans were closed by the Japanese and 

 there was no other way open except by the long passage right 

 round the south of the Australian Continent. It might be neces- 

 sary at any time, as strategy required, to pass battleships and air- 

 craft carriers rapidly from one of these two oceans to the other. 

 More particularly at this time was it likely that the British Eastern 

 Fleet might be required to move rapidly to the Pacific from the 

 Indian Ocean to join the U.S. Fleet. 



A navigable channel through Torres Strait had been surveyed 

 by Captain Blackwood in the survey ship Fly in the years 1 843 

 to I 845^, and it was his charts which were now investigated. His 

 channel was well used, lighthouses now marking some of the vital 

 turning points along the tortuous route. The channel throughout 

 its entire length of 100 miles from Booby Island in the west to 

 Dalrymple Island in the east seldom exceeds 100 feet in depth 

 and so it may be seen what a potential danger an undiscovered 

 coral head might be to a fleet of ships requiring a depth of water 



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