The history of great ocean liners is fascinating to me, not to mention the connection some of them have to New York City.  Pier 54 was supposed to be the landing dock for the Titanic, and instead the surviving passengers arrived in New York City aboard the Carpathia in 1912.  The glorious SS Normandie, of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT), met her untimely demise at Pier 88 after she caught fire in 1942.  There is a very knowledgeable ship memorabilia collector