Capt. JD Adams, Canal Barge Company
Waterways Journal readers know that towboat leaders can come from all kinds of backgrounds. Not all of them come from families of towboaters. That was the case for Capt. JD Adams of Canal Barge Company, captain of the brand-new mv. Al Sloss.
Adams grew up in the little town of Birch Tree, a small city in Shannon County, Mo., located in the Ozarks along U.S. Route 60, with a population of 541 as of the 2020 census. It’s not especially close to any navigable rivers.
“About the only thing it has is a handful of sawmills,” Adams said. “It’s a nice place to live, but there isn’t much opportunity there.”
Adams still lives in south central Missouri, on a 157-acre farm he shares with his parents, his 5-year-old son and 10-year old daughter, and where he and his wife raise chickens.
Adams had friends who worked on towboats, though. When Canal Barge came to town with a recruitment event at a local hotel, he attended and was hooked. His group was taken to Paducah for TWIC cards and physicals, then to New Orleans for further training. Adams credits Capt. Tyler Plowman with mentoring him.
He would like to tell young people, “This life isn’t for everybody, but you can develop yourself and advance quickly if you have the right work ethic.”
Adams started as a deckhand and didn’t automatically have his sights set on the wheelhouse—at first. But he was eager to learn and loved to work hard.
He has been in the wheelhouse for the past five years. Today, Adams proudly captains the mv. Al Sloss, a 2,600-horsepower, 87-foot by 34-foot towboat delivered to Canal Barge Company by C&C Marine and Repair in December 2025. It honors Alexander “Al” Dimitry Sloss, the son of Elizabeth “Liz” Huger Sloss, namesake of the mv. Liz Sloss, and Lynes “Poco” Sloss, a former Canal Barge Company board member. Al passed away in June 2024 after a brave battle with melanoma. In his honor, the Sloss family encourages everyone to prioritize their health by getting regular skin checks.
The vessel accommodates up to 8 crew members. Canal Barge usually keeps the same crewmembers together as much as possible—at least until the deckhands start advancing or pilots and captains and are moved to other vessels.
Mostly, the Al Sloss travels the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and the ICWW toward Houston, Texas. Adams spent some time on the Mississippi, Ohio and Illinois as a mate and steersman, and sometimes the Intracoastal Waterway. He says CBC likes to start off younger deckhands on the larger rivers and boats because “the less experienced guys get more supervision there.”
In his 14 years of towboating, Adams says, he has no hair-raising stories to report. For that, he credits Canal Barge’s strong safety culture. “Canal Barge is big on safety. Our safety policies are written in blood non-negotiable, and based on years of hard-earned experience,” he said, “and those years of experience have developed good policies and procedures that have made the high-quality operation we are today.”
The recruitment route is one that an increasing number of barge and towboat companies are taking to find qualified and interested individuals, and it’s paying off. Adams proves that this approach works and that through effort and discipline, earning the role of captain aboard a premier vessel on our nation’s waterways is attainable. He has spent his entire career with Canal Barge.
