1882: On 8 March 1882, the tug WINSLOW left Manistee to tow the NORTHERN QUEEN to Marine City for repairs. NORTHERN QUEEN had collided with LAKE ERIE the previous autumn and then sank while trying to enter Manistique harbor. Robert Holland purchased the wreck of NORTHERN QUEEN after that incident.
1892: March 8, 1910 – A fire from unknown causes destroyed the ANN ARBOR NO. 1 of 1892. The hull was sold to Love Construction Co., of Muskegon, Michigan.
1930: EUGENE P. THOMAS (Hull#184) was launched March 8, 1930, at Toledo, Ohio by Toledo Shipbuilding Co., for the Pittsburgh Steamship Co..
1981: MEZADA of the Zim Israel Line first came to the Great Lakes in 1966 after it had been lengthened to 676 feet. The vessel had been built in 1960 and foundered after breaking in two about 100 miles east of Bermuda on March 8, 1981. The 19,247 gross ton bulk carrier was traveling from Haifa to Baltimore with a cargo of potash and 24 lives were lost while only 11 sailors were rescued.
2018: Louis “Skip” Meier, 67, a long-time member of the Marine Historical Society of Detroit’s advisory council and former president of the group, passed away Thursday, March 8, 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was voted the group’s Historian of the Year (along with co-author Wayne Garrett) in 2009 for his work writing and editing the group’s definitive book “The Great Lakes Engineering Works: The Shipyard And Its Vessels.” He also wrote numerous in-depth fleet histories for the group’s newsletter The Detroit Marine Historian, was instrumental in selecting photos for the group’s annual calendar and was part of the team of authors who compiled the books “Ahoy & Farewell” and “Ahoy & Farewell II.”
Data from: Skip Gillham, Joe Barr, Historical Collections of the Great Lakes, “Ahoy & Farewell II” and the “Great Lakes Ships We Remember” series