Two of three sons of Captain Joey Myalls work for Atlantic Towing. Pictured here (Left to Right), Deckhand, Brandon Myalls, Captain Joey Myalls and Deckhand, Jesse Myalls.


THE MYALLS CLAN


In 1964 Albert joined J.D. Irving, Marine Division, to captain their Saint John Tugs. He captained the Beech, Maple, Birch, Miami, [new] Beech and Hemlock, to name a few. He was a key player in building the company’s tug boat operations and was a valuable employee throughout the company’s major growth during its tugboat operations in the late ‘60s and ‘70s.


“Captain Albert Myalls was the best of the best,” says Rio St. Armand, Atlantic Towing”s General Manager from 1973-2000. “Anything asked of him, he could and would do, no matter how challenging.”


St. Armand went on to explain a wood delivery that Captain Myalls once captained from St. John’s to Norway. Another towing company was in the process of delivering a barge loaded with wood when their tug sank following mechanical problems. Albert had just returned home from a contract at sea, and was eager to spend Christmas with his family, when he received a phone call from Rio asking him to assess the possibility of towing the barge. Normally due to seasonal, inclement weather, tows to Norway at that time of the year headed south rather than north. Captain Myalls assessed the weather conditions and decided that heading north for the delivery was a great option.


“He was the best at making safe, calculated decisions that could save time and money,” recalls Rio.


Albert left St. John’s on Christmas Eve. The barge, the tug and the crew arrived safely in Norway five days ahead of schedule.


“Trips like this one were a dime a dozen,” adds Rio. “Like I said, he was the best of the best.”


Fellow Captain, Ted Shedd, once said to him, “Albert, you can say something very few people can say, and that is, in your day, you


MARINE WAVE


5


SIX GENERATIONS AT SEA


were the best there was. Albert Myalls and the Birch solved more problems and did more salvage jobs and pulled more things off rocks all over Atlantic Canada and the Eastern seaboard than anyone else.”


Captain Albert Myalls worked with Atlantic Towing until his death in 1988.


For Captain Joey Myalls, Captain of the Atlantic Bear, and Albert’s son, his earliest memories are being on a tug, surrounded by water. His favourite and most vivid memories are the summers that he spent on the tugs with his father. At the young age of nine, whether he was aware of it or not, Joey began learning all he could about life on a tug. He loved travelling up and down Canada’s Eastern Seaboard and feeling like part of the crew. “They treated me like their own and looked out for me all the time,” says Joey, the devoted father of three. At 15, Joey boarded the Irving Birch (now Atlantic Birch) as a deckhand. He was quick to appreciate the effortless joy of doing something you love while getting paid for it. Even after 33 years of being on the tugs, he still appreciates the wonder and beauty of the water. “Getting up in the morning, going to the bridge and seeing the sunrise with no land around you is breathtaking, and something I will never tire of.”


As Mother Nature would have it, the calm and quiet beauty are not only backdrop of life at sea. When working as a deckhand in 1998, Joey boarded the Atlantic Hickory en route to Spain to load cargo onto a barge for delivery to Nigeria, Africa. The crew came head-on with a terrible storm just north of Bermuda. Trapped, with no way around it, they were forced to endure the 65+ foot waves ahead of them. “When you went into the trough, it was crazy,” says Myalls. “The Odometer broke at 99 knots. Imagine the worst amusement ride of your life and multiply it by 1,000. That was our existence for a day and a half!”


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