Last winter I caught Viking from a distance, with her unusual bow, and last week again I recognized her too late to catch a frontal. Check the foto on Paul the pirate’s post to see another vessel with Viking’s design. Anyone know the manufacturer of the coupling?

Decker’s 1930 work-free nose carries a luxurious cushion of fiber; the Reinauer 7200 (can’t tell which one) has it articulating with (read “buried into”) its intended barge.

I know Scotty Sky is not a tug, but I’m intrigued by what hangs there: functional I suppose; representational, I wonder.

Specialist II follows an impressive prow–all it’d need is a forward and be-lipped curve at its tip to claim some Viking influence.

Rosemary–one of the newer tugs in the boro–defines “bow” massively anew.

And–way back in my “kidhood” we called these “stub-nosed.” It’s Brooklyn and modified. I’m wondering what the intention of the off-centered grill might be. What if a century ago, rather than following the draft-animal model, trucks had evolved using a “push” model?

Photos, WVD.