“Yes, I have got it now,” he answered with his thick red finger planted halfway down the column. “Here it is. This is what began it all. You just read it for yourself, sir.” I took the paper from him and read as follows:

On Friday 11 October 1991, the Belfast Telegraph carried a small notice about Alex Kane and his love of the Sherlock Holmes stories. He was a member of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and he was hoping to make contact with other members who lived in Northern Ireland or, failing that, to meet other people who read and enjoyed Holmes. From such a small acorn did The Crew of the S.S. May Day grow.

The S.S. May Day subsequently set sail on Saturday evening 29 February 1992. Our name comes from the reference in The Adventure of the Cardboard Box, the only tale in the Sherlock Holmes Canon to mention “Belfast” or indeed “the north of Ireland.”