Never before having enjoyed the novelty of a breakfast club I’ve based my talk this morning on “breakfasty” issues. Most of them are related to Belfast’s unique maritime heritage. Several of them aren’t – like John and Joan who had just returned from their honeymoon. They were in their kitchen for their first breakfast as man and wife. John said to Joan “If you’ll make the toast and pour the juice, my sweetheart, breakfast will soon be ready.”

“Oh darling, are you really making breakfast for me, baby,” said the beaming Joan “what are we having?”

“Toast and juice!”  John replied.

For me even that would be a feast. I don’t generally eat breakfast – I find the morning is a rather trying experience. Like it was for two little brothers upstairs in their bed room. The older and naughtier 7 year old explained that it is high time that the two of them began swearing. When his little 4 year old brother responded enthusiastically, the 7 year old said, "When we go down stairs for breakfast this morning, I'll say "Hell" and you say "ass." The 4 year old happily agrees.

They go to the kitchen where their Mother asks her older son what he would like for breakfast. The 7 year old replies, "Ah hell, mom, I'll just have some Rice Crispies."

His startled mother whacks him on his bottom. He runs upstairs crying and rubbing his behind. With a sterner voice, the mother then asks her younger son, "And what would YOU like for breakfast?" "I don't know," the 4 year old blubbers, "but you can bet your ass it's not going be Rice Crispies."

A more poignant breakfast, a true one, took place in a Southampton hotel almost a hundred years ago on Wednesday 10^th April in 1912. Laurence Beesley, a science teacher from Dulwich College had stayed the night in a hotel. He later wrote in his diary “It is pathetic to recall that as I sat that morning in the breakfast room of the hotel, from the windows of which could be seen the four huge funnels of the Titanic towering over the roofs of the various shipping offices opposite, and the procession of stokers and stewards wending their way to the ship, there sat behind me three of the Titanic's passengers discussing the coming voyage and estimating, among other things, the probabilities of an accident at sea to the ship. As I rose from breakfast, I glanced at the group and recognized them later on board, but they were not among the number who answered to the roll-call on the Carpathia, the rescue ship,  on the following Monday morning.”

Beesley was a second class passenger in Cabin D56, His ticket was number 248698 and cost £13. For breakfast, 1^st Class passengers had a choice of baked apples, haddock and smoked salmon, grilled ham, sausage and mutton, kidneys and bacon, vegetable stew,

fresh shirred eggs (French idea, eggs baked in individual dishes with cream, butter, and cheddar cheese) poached and boiled eggs, omelets, mashed, sautéed and boiled potatoes

scones, rolls, corn bread, buckwheat cakes with jam, honey and marmalade.

Laurence Beesley’s 2nd class breakfast menu was similar to the 1st but with fewer choices. In 3rd class they were served: oatmeal porridge, smoked herring, jacket potatoes

tripe ( part of a cow's or ox's stomach) and onions, Swedish bread and marmalade.

Breakfast on Belfast’s greatest sea going icon.

It’s painfully sad that, as the Titanic was sinking, according to one passenger who survived, a purser from Liverpool told his staff – “Boys, it’ll be sand for breakfast in the morning.” This for a sinking ship that employed sixty chefs and chef's assistants worked in the Titanics five kitchens. There was even a kosher cook to prepare the meals for the Jewish passengers.

1891    Ship 247   117 years ago today - The Massachussets. 6,000 ton passenger ship for Baltimore Storage and Lighterage Company. She was one of four sisters -  the Manitoba and Mohawk, both also built in Belfast, and the Mobile. Massachussets made 61 return voyages from London to New York between May 1892 and July of 1898.

Massachusetts was chartered  in November of 1897 with the strangest of trips to London…….. 22 elephants, 11 camels, 136 trained horses, 240 draught horses, 4 tigers, 6 lions, 6 zebras, 30 different kinds of antelopes, several wild boars, a pelican, a female gorilla, an adjutant bird, an ostrich, an emu, a cassowary, a rhea, "and other animals and birds too numerous to mention." A giraffe named Daisy evidently fell during rough weather and died. Other casualties of the voyage were 3 horses, 2 monkeys, and the black stallion Eagle, 36 years old, all buried in British waters. Besides the livestock, Massachusetts carried as passengers "240 employees connected with the show.". Barnum & Bailey's Circus

1940    Ship 1096        HMS Alisma   800 ton Flower Class Corvette for the Admiralty.

H.M.S.Alisma