Edward A. MacFayden became a merchant seaman in 1924. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy a few years later and became a gunnery instructor with the rank of Chief Petty Officer by 1939. He was commissioned a Lieutenant during World War II. After 1951 he was stationed at H.M.C.S. Naden, and he retired in 1960. He was curator of the British Columbia Maritime Museum, then located in Esquimalt, from 1955 to ca. 1961.
Two brothers, Arthur and Fred MacFarlane of Mill Bay, started towing scows and logs around Mill Bay in 1910 using the small tug Victory. They soon acquired a larger wooden tug, the Wabash. When the brothers returned from service overseas in WWI, they purchased a tug named Bonilla. They subsequently owned the tugs J.W.P., Daring, Doreen M., Restless, and Swiftsure II. The company office was in the Yarrow building on Fort Street in Victoria. Fred MacFarlane sold his interest in the firm to his brother Arthur in 1934. The company closed when Arthur MacFarlane retired in 1947.