The Schomberg was, by reputation, the most perfect clipper ship ever built. Launched by Alexander Hall and Co at Aberdeen in 1855 for James Baines's Black Ball Line, she was a three-masted wooden clipper of 2,284 tons with luxurious accommodation and a design intended to make the run from Liverpool to Melbourne in sixty days. Her master was the celebrated and notorious James 'Bully' Forbes, and her maiden voyage was to be a record. Instead light winds held her up at the equator, and on 26 December 1855, after 78 days at sea, she drifted onto a sand spit off what is now Peterborough while, according to the passengers, Forbes was below playing cards. All 430 people aboard were taken off safely by the coastal steamer Queen the next day, but the ship could not be refloated and broke up over the following weeks. Forbes was tried for negligence and acquitted, but his career never recovered, and the wreck became a byword for hubris on the Victorian coast.

What survives on Schomberg Rock in about 10 m is heavily broken and concreted. No hull structure remains visible of a wooden ship lost in the surf zone 170 years ago; what divers see are the heavy items of cargo and fittings – railway bridge irons and large railway girders bound for the Victorian railways, iron tanks and pots, a mast, deck stanchions – lying in the gutters and cemented into the limestone, with small artefacts such as buttons and buckles visible in the concretion for those who look closely. The site is covered in kelp and other seaweeds and inhabited by the ordinary reef fish of the coast, with crayfish in the crevices. It is a short, shallow dive whose interest is almost entirely historical, and it is diveable only in the rare calm after northerly weather. The Schomberg is a protected historic shipwreck; a diamond ring recovered from the wreck in the 1970s and one of her anchors are displayed at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum, and an interpretive sign on the Great Ocean Road east of Peterborough marks the spot.

Peterborough is on the Great Ocean Road 50 km east of Warrnambool. Boats launch at the Peterborough Bay of Islands (Boat Bay) ramp off Boat Bay Road or the Curdies River ramp at the end of Dorey Street in Peterborough; the river ramp requires crossing the Curdies Inlet bar, which is only possible at higher tides and in small swell. From the Boat Bay ramp run 3–4 km east, about 10 minutes, to Schomberg Rock immediately east of the Curdies Inlet entrance; from the river ramp the site is only a few hundred metres outside the bar.

The Scuba Doctor notes shore diving is possible – walk east along Peterborough beach, cross the inlet mouth at low tide and swim out – but only in exceptionally flat conditions. An anchor and other relics are displayed at Flagstaff Hill in Warrnambool, the nearest dive shop town.

South-easterly and southerly winds expose the wreck to dangerous swells, and the site is safest after a period of northerly weather. The rock is in the surf zone of an open south-west facing bay, so the working limit is swell under about 0.5–0.8 m with light offshore winds; anything more breaks over the rock and the surge on the bottom makes the dive pointless as well as dangerous. If launching from the Curdies River, the bar needs a rising tide and small swell.

Visibility is best in autumn after several settled days and is quickly ruined by surge. Perhaps five to ten diveable days a year.

Anchor on sand in the lee of Schomberg Rock, descend to 8–10 m and work around the base of the rock and along the gutters where the railway girders, iron tanks, stanchions and concreted debris lie. Look closely at the limestone for cemented buttons, buckles and small fittings. Turn at half gas, return to the anchor and ascend directly; there is no need for a deep safety stop at this depth but a slow ascent is wise in surge.

No regular operator – private boats, Warrnambool Diving and Melbourne club trips on rare calm days; visited far more often from the clifftop lookout on the Historic Shipwreck Trail.