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ATLANTIC TOWING


ATLANTIC TOWING


As a young boy, Captain Joey Myalls, remembers spending his summers on the tugs (Left to Right), The late Henry, Bill Mullins, the late Dicky Lambert, Joey Myalls, Gordy Henwood and the late Albert Myalls.


Sadly for Myalls, the storm was not the most challenging part of this journey. When the sea settled, and they were making their way to Spain, Joey was given word that his brother-in-law, Andre Hickey, a fisherman that worked on a stern trawler for National Sea Products, had died. Joey would later learn that he was killed in a workplace accident on the trawler’s deck.


“I had no idea what happened to him. All I knew was that he was gone,” recalls Myalls. “It was so incredibly hard to not be there for my (then) wife and for my family. It was a long three weeks before I could call them, and eight weeks before I was home again,” adds Myalls. “I thought I would feel better once I got home. And yes, it was a huge comfort to be with my family, but they were several weeks into their grief, with the funeral behind them, and I was just trying to piece together his accident, his death and his absence. It was a very isolating experience for me.”


“Back then, it was just part of the job that you had to accept,” adds Joey. “Today our contact with family is daily, via email, cell phones etc. We didn’t have that luxury back then.”


Joey’s father, Albert, experienced this same helplessness when his father, Wally, passed away while he was on a vessel. Like Joey, Albert was unable to return home to attend the funeral to grieve alongside his family.


While leaving family behind for long periods of time is a tough part of a mariner’s life, Joey would not trade his career for anything.


“I can honestly say that the only part I trouble with is leaving my girlfriend and my dogs behind. But once I am on the tug, I can adjust pretty quickly. The people I work with are always awesome, which is a big part of why I love my job so much.”


As a seasoned captain with the company, Joey continues to thrive as a highly experienced trouble-shooter.


“The problem solving I get to do keeps me on my toes and inspired,” says Joey. “I am in the middle of nowhere, with seven


crew I need to keep safe and a boat I need to protect. I am aware that many outcomes we experience are the result of my decisions. My decisions can affect myself, the crew, the vessel and the company.”


For Joey, the Myalls family pedigree in the marine industry and with Atlantic Towing is a source of great pride. His only regret is that due to changes in safety policies, he was unable to bring his three sons on board when they were children and share the early childhood experiences that he holds so dear to him.


“I would have loved to bring them on a tug and teach them all that I knew about them and share their first experiences of life at sea just as my father did for me and my grandfather did for my father.”


Brandon Myalls (23), Joey’s son, grew up hearing stories of sea life at Sunday family dinners, and has enjoyed the benefits of knowing his career aspirations at an early age. He knew in middle school that he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and someday Captain a tug. Throughout high school, he worked for Atlantic Towing as a painter for the harbour fleet. Following high school, he attended a Marine Navigation course at the Nautical Institute of Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, and then completed a three-month work term on the Atlantic Condor. He is now a Deckhand on the coastal fleet, where he is working towards his Mates Ticket. Like his father, Brandon has decided to ‘go up through the hawes pipe,’ which is a term used for mariners that choose paid work experience and independent studies in lieu of a formal education in a school environment.


Brandon’s most challenging job to date was a contract he worked on in Greenland in 2012. The Atlantic Birch II (now the Atlantic Tern) was doing supply work for seismic vessels. The contract was isolating, the hours were long, and Brandon found himself far from home for the first time. He was on the vessel for seven weeks.


“The crew was great – they always are. They made all the difference for me on my first far-away, long contract,” recalls Brandon.


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