The logic prize

In 1979, a young diver, James Gauld, and his wife were wreck-diving in Whitesands Bay off the south coast of England. In the accommodation area of a sunken liberty ship, they came across a battered enamel drinking mug. Attached to the handle of this was a silver medallion...

The medal, dated 1814, had been issued by the Royal Belfast Academical Institution - one of Northern Ireland's oldest colleges - to one Samuel John McClean as first prize for Logic in the Faculty of Philosophy.

The item is of great historical significance, since McClean was one of the pupils of the college in the year of its establishment, and his family appear to have been instrumental in the founding of the institution itself.

The medal is now on permanent loan to the school museum

The School Medals - similar (but not identical) to that found on the "James Egan Layne".

The James Egan Layne was torpedoed off the Lizard on the 21^st March 1945. (Another source gives 15^th March). Badly damaged, an attempt was made to beach her in Whitesands Bay, near Plymouth but the pumps could not keep pace and she sank in 25 metres, just off the coast.

The wreck site is NOT designated as an official War Grave, from which we may deduce that her crew were saved.

The engine room of the James Egan Layne,

photographed by a member of a Berkshire diving club in 1997

By virtue of it's accessibility, the wreck of the James Egan Layne is now one of the most well-known and popular sites for recreational divers in England. It is likely that if James Gauld and his team were to visit her today, they would find very few items remaining other than those which were firmly welded to the original structure….

How the R.B.A.I. medal came to be aboard her at the time of the sinking remains a mystery.