The remnants of Pier 13, as they looked in January 2006. Sandwiched between the bustling New Jersey Ferries Pier just to the South, and the Seaport complex piers just to the North, the former Ward Line slip sits quietly.
At sunset, when one stands here, it is difficult to picture the frequently bizarre events that took place at Pier 13 a lifetime ago. Gunfire between customs agents and bootleggers beside the Orizaba during the Jazz Age. Angry mobs and the bomb squad awaiting the inbound Morro Castle during the turbulent summer of 1933. A would-be assassin who looked like Valentino removed from the Morro Castle under guard a few weeks later.
And, of course, it was through here that most of the 134 victims of the Morro Castle and all of the 46 lost from the Mohawk passed, filled with the excitement of sailing day, as they commenced their final voyages. The Filtzers beginning their married life; the boys from Williams College setting forth on the adventure of a lifetime; the one hundred-plus Concordia Singers of whom over 25 would not return alive; John Telfer with his wife, mother, and sons, destined never to fill his government post in Mexico once gathered here, and, somehow in the quiet of late afternoon on the maintained but disused pier, it is easy to feel close to them and to feel a great deal of regret over their respective fates.
