Pier 54: Cunard's cursed New York base

Amid the metropolitan bustle of New York’s vibrant morning hue, as each rising sun casts a warm glow over Manhattan, the docking gate of Pier 54 fashions an eerie silhouette.

The dilipidated iron framework remains the final whisper of a significant existence, one of many docks built on the western bank of the Hudson River. Referred to as part of New York’s historic Chelsea Piers, originally constructed to accommodate the great ocean liners of the early 20^th century, each dock offered an array of cultural splendour. Except – Pier 54 was the most significant of them all.

As the North American home of Cunard (later Cunard-White Star), the mantra of Pier 54 was much imitated but never bettered. From cosseting survivors of RMS Titanic and waving RMS Lusitania off on her doomed final voyage, to residing as the second home of RMS Mauretania, RMS Carpathia and the indefatigable RMS Aquitania, Cunard’s gateway initiated a dreamy haze of edifying drama long before those Quaalude hits of Studio 54.

As with anything relating to Cunard, the wharf mixed business with pleasure against a backdrop of intimate style and unnecessary luxury. The Quayside may have been only a passing entrance to passengers and crew, but Cunard ensured their docking point carried a vista of past and present – fuelled by the Dionysian excess so typical of shipping's golden era.

To some, Pier 54 set the decadent tone when visiting New York. To others, it was the means to a fresh start amidst civil opportunity. Thousands of third-generation North American families have traced their ancestral origins back to the Cunard – or White Star Line – Hudson quayside.

However, to modern-day revellers of heritage, the pier exists only within history books. Should you glide down the west side of lower Manhattan, at the base of 14^th Street and a stone's throw from the clamour of New York’s West Side Highway, you’d be hard-pressed for any immediate connection to historical cruise liners. The harbour is practically unrecognisable when compared to the bustling spectacle of yesteryear; now consigned to legend.

Yet, if you delve into the past, and you know exactly where to look - between the commotion of present-day traffic and teeming contemporary life - the trailblazing sound of our progenitors can still be found, echoing across Manhattan’s gleaming skyline, sounding from a quayside that once stood as centre of the world.

Pier 54: Centre pin of transatlantic travel

Pier 54 was caught between two conflicting identities while operational as Cunard’s transatlantic ocean-liner terminal. On the one hand, the liner's Manhattan pier welcomed travel-weary migrants and society’s elite; akin to the receiver of life. On the other hand, it played host to disaster, fatefully emerging as the purveyor of death; the last surface employed by those doomed to maritime tragedy.

As the competitive route between Southampton and New York swung into a golden operational age, Pier 54 quickly came to epitomise the allure of ocean-going travel in its’ prime. Rivalry between Cunard and White Star Line (the latter located upriver at Pier 59) may have been genteel on the surface, but boardroom antics ensured no end of one-upmanship in pursuit of headlines and profit-heavy respect.

Honourable vying for the celebrated Blue Riband title, and the proclivity of regular transatlantic dwellers created the now-famous subterfuge between competing vessels, but each pontoon also waged polite war with one another. Cunard’s quayside was festooned with opulent intricates and dedicated service, attempting to outpace White Star Line’s efforts at pier décor, but darker times soon forced collaboration.

An inevitable fall-from-grace was all but assured as payment for direct connections with the RMS Titanic and RMS Lusitania disasters, yet, as a tectonic place worthy of respect – perhaps not for itself, but for the flicker of former individuals who frequented the pier’s long-destroyed spaces – Pier 54 symbolised New York’s lofty ambition. Even if it was a tad unlucky.

Pier 54: The dock of death

Although New York was infected by social unrest during the early 20^th century, two events subsequently united all social classes in solidarity. As disaster befell ticket holders of White Star Line’s RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, Cunard and WSL’s mantra became intertwined, contrasting the city’s infamous hierarchy of the time. When death came knocking, it signalled the end of a gilded age – of which Pier 54 had largely played host.

Over 1,500 souls perished during the Titanic disaster, where lifeboats and un-orderly procedures ensured only certain social classes clung to life. More than 700 survivors boarded Cunard’s RMS Carpathia from the freezing North Atlantic, having spent hours in darkness, with death illuminated only by the dim twinkle of stars.

Titanic’s chaotic evacuation mirrored an ongoing undercurrent in public acceptance. By the early 1900s, orthodox foundations of social order had already been compromised, splintering under the weight of gluttonous opulence unsupported by the underpaid proletariat. Self-appointed aristocracy began to succumb to unions and industry, and this hit New York’s established elite with blunt force.

As time grumbled towards societal revolt, grandiose buildings and decadent frivolity were destroyed or dismantled. Pier 54 would suffer a similar fate, seemingly hexed as of April 18, 1912, when Cunard mournfully delivered survivors from ‘the unsinkable ship’ upon the dock.

RMS Carpathia first transferred White Star Line’s lifeboats to Pier 59, before arriving at Pier 54 with those liberated from Titanic’s grasp, greeted by a maddening crowd of 40,000 anxious individuals. The pier’s entrance was flooded by grief and fear, enhanced by hundreds of reporters and media personnel.

The post-Titanic onslaught of distress and emotional agony was something Pier 54 fought hard to shake off, but fate wasn’t so kind. Only three years later, Cunard’s RMS Lusitania departed for her 202^nd transatlantic crossing from Pier 54 to meet a grizzly end 11-miles short of Ireland. Torpedoed by a German submarine, RMS Lusitania dragged over 1100 souls into the abyss.

Still haunted by the torment of RMS Titanic, Pier 54 lost all notion of providing a safe or comfortable voyage following the Lusitania disaster. It was almost as though, through no fault of its own, travellers had lost trust in the once-celebrated partnership of New York and its’ fashionable pier. It's clear that all sense of value became removed from these illustrious institutions. The jetty almost felt unlucky, becoming an uneasy metaphor for Manhattan’s changing fortunes.

Of course, it didn’t help when RMS Mauretania ploughed into Pier 54 with devastating effect on June 20, 1925. When the ship’s overhang on the port side of the bridge caught an upper steel girder of the pier, chaos ensued. Metal twisted akin to a wisp of paper, removing large chunks of Cunard's dock and disposing all evidence into the river bed.

This wasn’t the first time RMS Mauretania had attacked Cunard’s Manhattan dock, having previously collided with the famed pier in 1907; causing mooring posts to give way and sinking a coal barge in the process. On Mauretania’s second occasion, The New York Times stated that the liner’s voyage was “in poor luck”, cementing Pier 54’s reputation as an omen of misfortune.

Captain Rostron – previously the captain of RMS Carpathia when delivering Titanic survivors to the Cunard dock back in April 1912 – was at the helm when Mauretania struck, telling the media “It was my unlucky side of the pier”. And with that, the dockside's mantra for trouble was secured – despite thousands of successful voyages in between.

Pier 54: Lost to time

Seemingly entwined in destiny, New York suffered its own crash in 1929. As Wall Street plunged the world into a financial depression, the seemingly unshakeable metropolis now swarmed with soup kitchens, rampant unemployment and physical defeat. The grand age of ocean travel juddered to a halt, and when a feverish blaze robbed Pier 54 of its elegant fixtures on May 6, 1932, the port’s prosperity jettisoned itself firmly into the past.

As the economy smouldered, so too did Cunard’s Manhattan wharf. Ignited by rubbish and debris beneath the jetty, fire had taken grip by 8am, with all efforts by watchmen to extinguish the inferno by hand having failed. Cunard employees rushed to snatch paperwork and furniture from the violent inferno, wearing damp handkerchiefs as protection from acrid torrents of throat-blistering smoke.

More than 700 firemen became involved in fighting the flames, battling for hours until it became clear that the US$2-million structure was doomed. More than US$100,000 worth of cargo turned to ash, but there was a higher cost to bear. Not all attending firemen survived, dozens were injured and nearby buildings were destroyed. As the sun set that day, Pier 54’s flaring wreckage collapsed into the Hudson River, having claimed further souls.

The City of New York, who leased the pier to Cunard, announced that its' well-heeled insurance policy would foot the bill for a replacement. The rebuild works provided much-needed employment during hard financial times, and the pier reopened in July of 1933.

Cunard was forced to obtain temporary accommodation until Pier 54 was sternly rebuilt, but attention to detail ensured that, in later years, the renovated facility barely looked any different from the original structure of 1910.

Upon the outbreak of World War II, the pier operated as the departure point for thousands of young troops over four years of American-involved combat. Many of these troops would never return, abandoning their future and leaving ghostly apparitions on Pier 54; their last taste of home turf before death embraced each soul on foreign soil.

The dock remained Cunard’s main terminus until the cruise line moved upriver when the world embraced technicolour and free love. As juggernauts – including RMS Olympic (operating as Cunard-White Star), RMS Queen Mary, QM2 and QE2 – pulled humanity deeper into subsequent decades while sailing past the old jetty, Cunard Line’s original gateway quickly fell into a state of abject disrepair.

The building was levelled in 1991, leaving behind a blank concrete slab that told the world nothing of its origins. The pier was later erased in early 2015, giving way to a bold new project known as Little Island; an arty installation consisting of greenery and plant life, encompassing an open-air amphitheatre.

Although New York ultimately survived the relentless hardships of 20th-century America, Pier 54 was not so lucky. With changing times and an urge to bury the past, as ships became larger, class segregation gave way to leisure and fashionable air travel emerged, Cunard’s old quayside became obsolete.

Once the edifice of hope and aspiration, as time stripped Pier 54 down to its waterlogged stubs, all that remains now is an abandoned steel skeleton bearing almost illegible signage – once the centre of the free world.

For someone who adheres to the respect deserving of our heritage, urban decay is more than a blot on the landscape. It symbolises the loss of what we could have had – in the case of New York’s Pier 54, we’ve lost a remarkable site where fantasy became reality, dreams were lost and the human condition expanded into a defining foundation for modern society.