The Antares was a three-masted iron barque of 1,742 tons, built in Glasgow in 1888 as the Sutlej and renamed when Italian owners bought and refitted her in 1907. She left Marseilles for Melbourne in December 1913 with a cargo of French roofing tiles and a crew of 24, and was posted overdue in mid-1914. Nothing was known of her fate until a body and wreckage were found under the cliffs west of the Bay of Islands in November 1914; she had struck in a storm on the night of 7–8 November, and every man aboard died. Because she was lost without witnesses, and because the world's attention was on the war that had begun three months earlier, the Antares attracted little notice at the time, but she holds a distinction: she was the last sailing ship wrecked on the Shipwreck Coast, closing a century in which more than 180 vessels were lost between Cape Otway and Port Fairy.

The remains lie in 2–6 m about 70–80 m off the cliffs and are, in the Scuba Doctor's words, battered and scattered. Iron frames, hull plating, anchors and fittings are strewn through the sand-floored gutters of the shore reef, concreted and overgrown, and among them are the roofing tiles that formed the cargo, many still recognisable and stacked as they fell. Kelp, abalone, crayfish and small reef fish share the gutters with the iron. It is a shallow, short dive whose whole difficulty is getting there and getting in: the site is in the surf zone below unbroken cliffs, reached only by boat from the Bay of Islands ramp 6 km east, and diveable only on the flattest days. It is a protected historic shipwreck on the Great Ocean Road Historic Shipwreck Trail, with an interpretive sign on the clifftop above, and it will interest wreck enthusiasts and historians far more than divers looking for a good dive.

Launch at the Bay of Islands (Boat Bay) ramp off Boat Bay Road, 5 km west of Peterborough, and run about 6 km west along the coast, 15–20 minutes in a small boat, to the position off the cliffs between the Bay of Islands and Childers Cove. The wreck lies 70–80 m off the cliffs in the surf zone; anchor outside the break on sand. There is no shore access – the cliffs are unbroken – and the site is well beyond snorkelling distance from any beach.

An alternative GPS mark of -38.5583, 142.7625 is also published. Warrnambool is the nearest dive shop.

The Antares lies in 2–6 m in the surf zone under exposed limestone cliffs facing south-west. It is only diveable in near-flat seas – swell under about 0.5 m – with light northerly winds, because any set breaking over the site would carry divers onto the rocks and there is no exit up the cliffs. Southerly and westerly weather is out of the question.

Visibility is poor in any surge and the shallow depth makes the site the first to be affected. Tide is less important than swell, but high water gives a little more margin over the reef. A handful of days a year.

Anchor on sand outside the break, descend and swim in toward the cliff base, where the scattered plating, frames and piles of French roofing tiles lie in the gutters in 3–6 m. Work along the scatter parallel to the shore, stay low in the surge, turn at half gas or as soon as the sets build, and return to the anchor line. Leave someone in the boat.

No operator – private boats and rare Warrnambool Diving or club trips in flat conditions.