Lt.-Cmdr. Paul Smith had an inkling he was the first black person to become the commanding officer of a ship in the Royal Canadian Navy’s 106-year history.

The navy chose Smith, 48, to be a commander in January 2010, but it wasn’t until around July 2014 — when he was appointed his first ship, the coastal defence vessel HMCS Kingston — that talk began in earnest about his possibly making history.

The subject first came up during coffees Smith had with some of his naval colleagues, he says.

“Someone said, ‘I think you might be the first black c.o. (commanding officer) we’ve had on a ship,’” Smith says.

Being in uniform for 23 years, and sailing on Canadian ships for almost as long, Smith hadn’t worked under any black commanding officers.

An officer combed naval records for the definitive answer.

The Directorate of History and Heritage, a repository of the navy’s past, was the source used to make the confirmation, navy spokesperson Lt. Blake Patterson told the Star recently. It’s a detail few outside the navy are aware of.

Receiving that proof was “great news” for Smith, who says it’s an honour to represent both the black community and the Canadian navy.

Being the first is “a bit of responsibility and something I embrace,” Smith says in an interview from Miami. The ship he now commands, HMCS Summerside, set sail for the Caribbean to participate in Operation CARIBBE 2016, part of a multinational campaign against drug trafficking.

“I like to think that I can provide some measure of being a role model to not just black Canadians but any diversity group,” says Smith, who is married with two sons and lives with his family in Halifax.

Smith says most people aren’t surprised when they learn he’s a ship commander.

“The military has no roadblocks based on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation. If you’re a qualified person, you are qualified,” he says. “I’ll leave it to others to say how they feel about (that), but I certainly haven’t had any issues.”

During the fall of 2014 Smith was part of history of another sort, when his ship joined the search party for the Franklin expedition ships Erebus and Terror. Though his vessel was further west, outside the search area, when the Erebus was found, Smith’s vessel helped transport equipment used in the hunt.

Born in Lionel Town, Jamaica, Smith came to Canada at age 7 with his parents and grew up in North York.

About to graduate high school and looking for a summer job at age 19, Smith learned about the naval reserve’s summer youth employment program, in which participants signed up for basic training at HMCS York in Toronto, a Canadian Forces naval reserve division.

He went on to the fall program and the next summer, after completing his general military training, left home for basic training in Halifax. That was 1986.

That year, he first crossed the ocean on a Canadian naval ship, and sailed Europe during fleet exercises, his first real taste of life at sea.

He returned to Canada to attend Dalhousie University to study sociology but left two years later to pursue a career with the navy.

In 1999, after achieving the rank of petty officer second class, Smith became a sub-lieutenant, and kept moving up through the ranks.

His love for the sea hasn’t ebbed.

Clarification - March 4, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version to make clear that Lt.-Cmdr. Paul Smith attended Dalhousie University and studied sociology but left before earning his degree to pursue a career with the Royal Canadian Navy.

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Correction - March 4, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Lt.-Cmdr. Paul Smith is the first black person to attain the rank of commanding officer in the Royal Canadian Navy. In fact, he is the first black commanding officer to have his own ship.

