The Hougomont was one of the last of the great four-masted steel barques of the grain trade. Built at Greenock, Scotland, in 1897, she was 89 m (292 ft) long and 2,378 gross tons, and in her later years she sailed in Gustaf Erikson's famous Åland fleet carrying grain from South Australia to Europe. In April 1932, bound for Port Lincoln, she was dismasted by a gale estimated at around 100 km/h west-south-west of Kangaroo Island.

She limped to Port Adelaide, where she was declared a total loss. Rather than being broken up, the hull was towed to Stenhouse Bay and, on 8 January 1933, scuttled with explosives to form a breakwater protecting the gypsum-loading jetty. For a time her decks and rails stood above the water, but they soon collapsed.

Today the Marine Life Society and DEW describe the bow and stern sections still standing upright among jumbled hull plates in about 9 m, between the breakwater and the jetty. The wreck provides a big structure in shallow, usually sheltered water, and it is heavily colonised by kelp, sponges and ascidians. Old wives, magpie perch, sweep, zebrafish and leatherjackets shelter in the plating, blue groper patrol, and crayfish and octopus use the holes.

Divers can trace the full length of the hull, which is rare for a tall-ship wreck accessible from shore. Most divers combine the Hougomont and the Stenhouse Bay jetty on a single tank or back-to-back dives. It suits Open Water divers comfortable with a slightly awkward jetty entry and some surge, and it is a fine place to appreciate the scale of a steel windjammer.

From Adelaide drive about 300 km (3.5 hours) via Port Wakefield, Minlaton and Warooka to Marion Bay; Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park begins just west of the township (vehicle entry fee, pay online or at the Stenhouse Bay visitor centre). Stenhouse Bay is inside the park about 5 km west of Marion Bay; park at the Stenhouse Bay jetty car park near the visitor centre. Walk out on the jetty and enter via the ladder, then swim to the wreck, which lies between the jetty and the rock breakwater to its east.

The jetty access is steep and the ladder can be awkward with a heavy rig, so gear up carefully. Boats can reach it in 10 minutes from the Marion Bay ramp.

The southern tip of Yorke Peninsula faces the open Southern Ocean and Investigator Strait, so south-westerly and southerly swell is the controlling factor: most exposed sites need swell under about 1.5 m and are best after several days of northerly or north-easterly winds, which blow offshore along this coast. Winter cold fronts bring big south-westerly swell and strong winds and can close the area for days. Summer afternoon south-easterly sea breezes make boat runs rough, so launch early.

Visibility is typically 10-20 m in settled conditions but drops sharply with swell-driven surge. Stenhouse Bay is partly sheltered by the breakwater and headland, but south-easterly and southerly swell still produces surge on the wreck and makes the jetty ladder dangerous.

From the jetty, swim east to the wreck, descend on the bow section and follow the hull line along the jumbled plating to the upright stern, returning along the other side. Finish by working back under the jetty piles to the ladder.

No resident operator; Adelaide shops and clubs dive it on Innes weekends, usually combined with the Stenhouse Bay jetty; many divers visit independently.