Serafim ‘Joe’ Fortes arrived in Vancouver as a sailor in 1885 somewhat by accident.
The ship he was working on had been badly damaged and the crew was discharged.
Fortes found himself stranded in Vancouver. He stayed and worked a variety of jobs including as a boot black and a bartender. Eventually, he became a popular lifeguard thanks to his talents as a swimmer.
Through his lifeguarding work, Fortes was credited with saving at least 29 people from drowning deaths and of teaching three generations of Vancouver kids to swim, according to the BC Black History Awareness Society.
Ruby Smith Diaz on her new book “Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim ‘Joe’ Fortes,” about the trailblazing Black lifeguard who became a Vancouver cultural icon.
But, amid the fame and notoriety, Fortes, a Black man of mixed ancestry from Trinidad, had to contend with a racist society, said …