If all went according to plan, the R.M.S. Titanic would have pulled into the White Star Line’s Pier 59 off 18th Street at the Hudson River.
But fate intervened. So instead, the 700 or so survivors picked up by the R.M.S. Carpathia docked in New York around nine p.m. on April 18 at Pier 54, the Cunard Line pier, just south of 14th Street.
There they were greeted by thousands of panicked relatives and newspaper reporters, desperate for details on who had survived and what happened to the so-called unsinkable ship.
The lettering is ghostly and faint, but you can still see both company names on this rusted old metal entrance.
Former rivals, the White Star and the Cunard lines merged in the 1930s, trying to stave off bankruptcy.
Pier 54 had another tangle with a maritime disaster. It’s the port where the R.M. S. Lusitania sailed from in 1915 before being torpedoed.
Here it is arriving at Pier 54 in an undated photo. And yep, that’s the infamous Liberty Inn when it was a sailor’s dive known as the Strand Hotel.)
Tags: Cunard Line pier, faded signs New York City, Pier 54, Pier 59, RMS Titanic, Titanic supposed to dock in New York, where Titanic passengers got off in New York, White Star Line
Ephemeral New York 
January 23, 2013 at 3:15 am |
The pie-shaped building in the foreground of the last photo is still there. That’s the Liberty Inn today. Back in the ’70s & ’80s it housed the infamous gay bar known as the Anvil.
January 23, 2013 at 11:50 am |
Just north of the Cunard dock stands what at the time (1912) was the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) bakery. Today it is a warren of smaller businesses, but some years back it had a sign, several stories high, on the south side, advertising the musical “Titanic”. I passed this scene every day, and sometimes wondered what, if it were possible through some magic, to witness the reactions of survivors to the idea that there could be a musical about the loss of so many lives.
January 23, 2013 at 6:04 pm |
[…] Where the survivors from the Titanic docked (Ephemeral New York) […]
January 24, 2013 at 12:07 pm |
I think the comments are wonderful!
And the article and images are tremendous. I had heard that it was left up as a kind of remembrance, that is so very poignant.
October 31, 2013 at 2:11 pm |
I need to know more about the infamous Liberty Inn… I could find very littel online
October 31, 2013 at 2:12 pm |
Oops – little…
April 7, 2014 at 5:17 am |
[…] wireless reports began to trickle in. But only when the Carpathia docked on the rainy night of April 18 did people really learn whether their loved ones were safe or if they had gone down with the […]
August 12, 2014 at 5:24 pm |
can someone tell me the source of the photo that some of you are mentioning; the Lusitania arriving at Pier 54? I would like to use it in a project I am working on and would like to get permission, correct attribution, and if possible a better resolution.
April 13, 2015 at 4:29 am |
Alan, did you ever get a response to your inquiry regarding the source of the photo?
April 9, 2018 at 5:46 am |
[…] the Carpathia delivered weary Titanic survivors to Chelsea Piers and the ship continued to the Mediterranean, “Cooper completed two paintings,” […]
August 10, 2022 at 4:05 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 6:26 pm |
[…] за моряци. Когато Титаник потъва през 1912 г., и Карпатия пристигна с оцелелите си на кей 54, Ню Йорк Таймс наеха стаи на Strand […]
August 10, 2022 at 6:35 pm |
[…] era lo Strand Hotel, una pensione per marinai. Quando il Titanic affondò nel 1912, e il Carpathia arrivato con i suoi sopravvissuti al molo 54, Il New York Times affittato stanze allo Strand per i […]
August 10, 2022 at 6:56 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 7:13 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 7:14 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 7:18 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 7:38 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 8:45 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 8:47 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 9:05 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 9:38 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 10, 2022 at 10:44 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
August 15, 2022 at 9:26 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]
September 10, 2022 at 6:36 pm |
[…] was the Strand Hotel, a boardinghouse for sailors. When the Titanic sank in 1912, and the Carpathia arrived with its survivors at Pier 54, The New York Times rented out rooms at the Strand for reporters to […]