Then the Cunard Lines’ green-hulled Caronia knifed through 30 feet of ten-inch concrete and rammed right up to Pier 90s shed before it could be stopped and worked into its slip (estimated damage to the two piers: $150,000).

Next day the task of bringing in the big ships became vastly more complicated because longshoremen had decided not to cross the tugboatmen's picket lines. Steamship company office workers came to the rescue, many of them in natty business suits and overcoats as they lent a hand at the lines.

The Constitution, American Export Lines’ gem of the ocean, made it the awkward way. On the big liner's first attempt, the tide was wrong, and the Constitution drifted within a hand's breadth of smashing into its pier. Dangling anchors dropped with a screech, and with engines in full astern the big ship backed off. On the second try, after a tense hour and 15 minutes, Captain Bernt Jacobsen finally inched the Connie into its slip.

When the 81,237-ton Queen Mary made its way slowly up the Hudson toward the Cunard piers, all Manhattan watched breathlessly. The Mary, after a gingerly pass at Pier 90, finally muddled through, coming to rest amidships on the “knuckle” (pier end), and calling on the white-collar dockhands to pull her in.

The U.S. Lines’ America followed the Queen Mary's lead, pivoted in after 55 minutes.