Intermediate Bearing's Hose Fitting

As this LNVT blog post states, several tugs have found their intermediate support bearing's hose fitting to be badly corroded.

Tug E. Bear 37VT62's Badly Corroded Fitting

Today I inspected Nellie's.  It looks old but there is no evidence of corrosion. So, it's serviceable.

Nellie's Intermediate Bearing Hose Fitting

 I suspect that Nellie's is a factory original part as it's made the same (unusual) way as Tug E. Bear's.  Removing it will require a plumber's wrench and some luck.

It is curious that the intermediate support bearing isn't bonded.  Perhaps the shaft's bonding protects all the metal in the intermediate support bearing.