"To be here in Sydney – one of the most far places from Spain – and see the town and where you are born [on the map] is very special," said Jose Perez Nunez, a Spanish naval liaison officer.  A minute later, another Spanish naval officer started talking excitedly in Spanish. He, too, had been born in the same town near the port of the historical shipbuilding town.

Then the visiting chief of the Spanish Navy, Admiral Jaime Munoz-Delgado y Diaz del Rio, revealed he, too, had spent his childhood in the town depicted on the1765 map.

The delegation was in Australia for the commissioning of the $1.5 billion warship the HMAS Canberra, built in Ferrol and finished in Australia, into the Royal Australian Navy.  

They were also the first to see a collection of 24 rare hand-coloured Spanish manuscript sea charts from the 1770s that was acquired in June by the State Library of NSW for $300,000.

As well as detailed maps of Spanish naval ports, including the old shipbuilding town of  Ferrol where early work on the HMAS Canberra was done, the collection includes one of the earliest known maps of Easter Island, with tiny figures depicting the massive statues.

Map expert Maggie Patton, of the State Library of NSW,  said the maps detailed the "last hurrah" – even the last hola – by the Spanish to colonise the Pacific. It documents Spanish expeditions to Easter Island led by Felipe Gonzalez (1770) and  two expeditions to Tahiti and various Polynesian islands led by Domingo Boenechea (1772-3 and 1774-5).

Fearing that the English or French would develop a foothold in the Pacific, the Spanish deposited two priests in Tahiti to start a colony. When ships returned a year later, they discovered they had made no headway, so the attempt was abandoned.

They were "historically significant" because the Spanish were more secretive with their records than other countries, she said.

The charts come from the personal library of Commodore Joseph de la Somaglia, who was in charge of the Pacific Fleet from 1770-1778.

Commenting on the excitement of the Spanish officers looking at the old maps of the naval ports and towns that still operate today, Ms Patton said that was why she loved maps. "That's what it is with maps, something relates to where you have travelled, where you have been, a book you have read."

Three of the maps are now on display in the library's Amaze Gallery.