Bob and Vincent Fernandez y Flor

By Robert Francis Flor, son of Vincent Flor

The sea brought him.

Lino and Marta Fernandez y Flor enjoyed the birth of Baltazar Flor, their first son, on January 6, 1900 in Guimbal, Ilolio City, Panay, Philippines. He immediately was baptized in Casa Parroquial de Guibal, a short distance from the South China Sea. The Spanish reign ended and the American began. Little is known of Baltazar’s childhood but one can speculate he was a curious, highly articulate young man. He spoke and wrote Illongo, Tagalog, Spanish and English as his education in the new colonial schools began.

America beckoned him.

Like so many Filipinos of the time, he was drawn by the opportunities offered by a new country. Baltazar, at 20 years of age, made his way to Manila where he found a "workaway" crew work aboard the freighter S.S. West Java. He served as a messman aboard the ship as it crossed from Shanghai to New York City, arriving August 6, 1920. The Java is shown to arrive on September 30 in Baltimore, probably to unload or take on cargo. It was on its way to Hong Kong, arriving in Seattle on December 4, 1920. The next trip for Baltazar was a return to the Far East. From there, he served as a "workaway" aboard the S.S. Delight, sailing from Yokohama, Japan to Seattle, arriving in May 1921. His last recorded sailing was again with the S.S. West Jappa from Kobe, Japan, arriving in Seattle in 1922. There, he left the ship for a life in the United States.

During his time serving aboard the West Jappa, Baltazar begins to formulate an application for citizenship. His Declaration of Intention for citizenship is entered on the 25th of December 1934. In it, he states he immigrated to the United States from Honolulu, and his lawful entry was New York, New York on the vessel S.S. West Jappa, August 22, 1920. It's highly probable that working the mess decks gained him kitchen and food service skills that propelled his later career. 

On his Declaration, Baltazar provides his residency as U.S.S. Surveyor, 601 Federal Office Building, Seattle, Washington, King County. The 1930 Census lists him as working for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey as a hospital orderly. Letters dated 1930 from girlfriends are addressed to him at S.S. Surveyor using the Federal Courthouse. Ashore in Seattle, he shared a household with Japanese and Filipino roommates. This suggests someplace in Japantown or Chinatown, within easy walking distance of the Federal Office Building.

Seeking an Education

Baltazar returned to a primary reason for his immigrating. He sought a better education and employment. He appears in the 1922 Weatherwax High School yearbook, where he provides a poem dedicated to the various classes. He was apparently a graduating senior at age 22 from this school in Aberdeen. It's likely he and some friends sought work in the active sawmill industry at that time. For whatever reason, he ended up spending a year in Aberdeen.

The work might have been fortuitous. St. Martin's College in Olympia was along their pathway between Seattle and Aberdeen. Martin Toner, O.S.B., Rector of St. Martin's College, in Lacey, Washington responds to Baltazar in a letter dated August 18, 1923. 

"Your letter of the 17th pleased me greatly. I shall arrange to provide some position or other for you at St. Martin's during the coming year so that your expenses for board, tuition, fees and books will be absolutely nothing.

"At present, I am greatly in need of a secretary, one who knows stenography, typewriting and who has a general knowledge of correspondence and office work.

"If you feel yourself capable of this position, I shall consider you. If not, I shall give you work with the other Filipino boys washing dishes, etc.

"Kindly advise me at once in reference to this matter."

 A continuing letter dated August 23, 1923 from Father Toner, O.S.B. responds,

"Judging from your letter, I feel confident that you will be able to fill the position of secretary in my office during the coming year. However, I shall be better able to judge when I see you and when you have a chance to know just what will be expected of you.

"At all events, I wish you would try to arrange to be here on Saturday, August 31st, or Sunday, September 1st. Classes resume Wednesday, September 5th, but there will be considerable correspondence to be taken care of just prior to that date."

For an unknown reason, Baltazar did not complete his college at St. Martin's, but returns to Seattle on an unknown date.

Return to Seattle: Community and Newspapers

In Seattle's Central District, events took place that would shape Baltazar’s future. The Catholic Archdiocese realized there were Japanese and Filipino immigrants moving into the area. They were Catholics with whom they had little experience or interaction. The area was what we came to label "redlined," where minority populations could rent or purchase housing. With their populations growing, Chinatown was too small to accommodate their families.

The Filipino population grew to around 3,500 during the early 1930s. Filipinos settled along Broadway near St. James Cathedral and pushed eastward toward Immaculate Conception and St. Teresa's Catholic churches. This provided access to familiar institutions and services. They could walk to church, Chinatown, Washington Hall, Mutual Fish, Washington Produce and Pike Market. Trolley service provided access to work, theatres, restaurants, parks and downtown Seattle. It also provided ease of access to the Local 37 Cannery Union. During this period Baltazar probably spent a few summers in the Alaska canneries.

In 1919, the Archdiocese opened Lady Queen of Martyrs (Maryknoll Church and School), catering to these new Catholic immigrants. Baltazar rented a residence at 925 Marion Street near Seattle College. For Baltazar, it was perfect!

Maryknoll Catholic Church provided a tight-knit community for new Filipinos. Baltazar became close friends with Father Monleon, an Archdiocesan priest who secured him work as a cook for the Jesuit priests at Seattle College. The church had a small community room with a stage. This offered Baltazar a chance to organize the Filipino Catholic Drama Guild and produce plays. 

In the late twenties and thirties, Filipino community papers emerged. Baltazar wrote an editorial column, "Saga of the Bluejackets," for the Philippine American Chronicle (later renamed the Cosmopolitan Courier) in mid-‘30s, along with his column "Odds and Ends." The papers leased offices in the Smith Tower Building (Room 304 and 305). Filipino papers flourished and, with them, a Filipino Press Club formed. His writing and nautical careers intertwined.

S.S. Surveyor and U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey

The U.S. Coast and Geodetic ship S.S. Surveyor operated in Alaskan and Washington waters with the purpose of mapping those waters. Baltazar signed on as a steward around 1929-30. In 1931, for an unknown reason, he applied for discharge from Coast and Geodetic. This was either declined or he changed course as his career continued. He likely rose to head cook at a later date when the Surveyor's cook died accidentally. The ship primarily homeported in Seward and Juneau, Alaska and Seattle, but it operated to the far reaches of the Aleutian Islands and Cordova, Alaska. It had offices at 601 Federal Building on 1st and Marion, and the building still stands. This placed Baltazar within walking distance of the cannery union, Chinatown and the Filipino community newspaper offices for which he wrote. Baltazar used its offices for his primary correspondence when he was at sea. It was common for a ship's mail to be sent to a common point before it was forwarded to crew at a base port.

Coast and Geodetic Survey transferred Surveyor to the U.S. Navy on September 24, 1917 for service in World War I. The Navy commissioned her as U.S.S. Surveyor on October 22, 1917. The Navy returned her to Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1919. For the next 36 years, Surveyor operated almost exclusively in the waters of the Territory of Alaska, working the North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. 

About the seafaring life, Baltazar writes in an unsent and undated letter to a woman named Edith:

"The country is still at the throes of winter, and in lethargic sleep … In spite of the vicissitudes and inclemency of the elements, our survey work must go on. This is the life of sea-going men. Here we are harnessed to a tough and rough grind, ever ready to hold our own. But innumerable tales have been woven around and about the supposedly romantic and devil-may-care life led by the sailor. And it seems that the gullible public is so eager to accept any literary effort that brings a tinge of romance into his humdrum life. But the truth of it all has been distorted. What romance is there for a bread-earner that follows the sea? What fascination does the ocean blue hold for a sailor? Some sailors may have claimed themselves sea-dogs with a tinge of romantic abandon in their expression. But that is not true. They are sailors because that's all the job they think they are able to find or fitted for, and after a few years at sea, resign to their fates. Aside from that, we all fear the mistress of all sea-going men — the restless tossing sea, more cruel, more faithless than hell. It's one lover who steals our hearts and never ceases to lift her white arms to us so that she may draw our bodies down into her hungry depths."

Education and a Lost Voice

Baltazar remained in service to Coast and Geodetic through 1939. He exchanged letters with the U.S. Department of Commerce during 1938-39, expressing concern about the employment of Filipinos on their vessels. In response to his letters, the Director L.O. Cobert replied in April 1939, "As far as the employment of Filipinos in this Service is concerned, this provides that Filipinos can be employed during the fiscal year 1939 only if they were in the service of the United States, not necessarily in this Department, on the date of approval of the Act, April 27, 1938." (The referenced Act was Public Act No. 453, 75th Congress, with an amendment whereby Filipinos are practically considered as American citizens for purposes of employment.) This was clarified in a following letter that "any citizen of the Philippines who has been employed by Geodetic Survey on, or prior to, the date of the approval of the Act may be retained being persons owing allegiance to the government of the United States."

Baltazar returned to his educational pursuit of a college degree in 1938 at Seattle College. He continued to write for the local Filipino papers, stage plays at Maryknoll and be involved in community curating events. He completed his Bachelor of Education degree in 1942. As the class historian, he wrote in the annual: "The parting of the ways is close at hand. Before we leave this Institution of Learning, may our four years of sacrifices, of joys and sorrows, be recorded in the annals and be forever kept in the archives of Seattle College. They represent the crowning glories of our four years of education." He returned to Alaska for a final time to work in the Pioneer Seafood Company, where he suffered a heart attack and was buried in Cordova, Alaska.

Vicente Fernandes y Flor – Arrival

On July 16, 1932, Vicente Flor, the third brother of the family, writes to Baltazar:

"Remember, brother dear, that I want to study. Don't forget when the hour will come to send for me. You might be surprised that I read books always, and magazines and news of any kind that will improve my vocabulary. I am not praising myself but tell you the truth. I am the best boy in the Penman's Corner. So long, but don't forget me to give a chance for a success."

Baltazar more than understood his request. He sent passage in the next few months. Vincente, born in 1908 in Manapla, Negros Oriental, Philippines, boards the S.S. Cleveland arriving in Seattle at midnight December 12, 1932 at piers 90/91. In the cold, winter snow, Baltazar met him and took him to the residence at 925 E. Marion. My father had never experienced snow, but this reunion with his eldest brother must have easily overcome the cold.

Community & University of Washington

Vicente stayed with Baltazar a short time. His primary intent was to achieve a college degree. He spent a few summers in Alaska in the '30s, ostensibly to earn money to pursue his dream. During college at the University of Washington, he shared a house on 45th Avenue NE and Roosevelt with four or five Filipino students. He enrolled in the fisheries department as a course of study. Vicente was also a competitive table tennis player and tennis player during this time, winning several tournaments.

Education and Employment

Vicente Fernandez Flor earned his Bachelor of Science in fisheries in the University of Washington's Class of 1940. He had a minor in chemistry. This was a bit of an unusual education for Filipinos during those times. He unsuccessfully sought employment in the field, even applying for work in the Philippines with the National Food Products Corporation in Manila on November 10, 1941. He describes his employment skills as able to operate a fish hatchery, manage a cannery, operate a cannery boiler, labor issues as a union delegate in 1937 and having taught public school for four years in the Philippine educational system. Pre-war, he also applied and was accepted into the Masters in Fisheries program at the University of Washington. He took maintenance work at Providence Hospital to cover room and board and educational expenses. It’s there that he meets Louise Smith, as she worked in the hospital's cafeteria serving line. They courted and married in June 1942. While Louise was pregnant, Vicente took work as a clerk-typist at the U.S. General Depot (aka, The Port of Embarkation) in March 1942. (The Depot was located near Pier 48.) He continued his unsuccessful pursuit of fisheries jobs with the Washington State Department of Fisheries through 1943.

US Coast and Geodetic Survey/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

While Vincente was initially employed as a clerk-typist, he had ambition and the talent to quickly learn other skills. He taught himself drafting and later cartography. He transferred from the Port of Embarkation to Coast and Geodetic Survey, where he became a statistical draftsman in 1953. He received awards for outstanding performance in 1954 and 1957 from the U.S. Army. Coast and Geodetic Survey relocated from Pier 48 to the same Federal Office Building on 1st and Marion Streets during this time, where he became employed as a self-educated cartographer. Eventually, Coast and Geodetic Survey was subsumed as part of the U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and offices were relocated to South Lake Union. Vicente received a Unit Citation Award from NOAA in 1974 for his work.