The Speculant was an iron three-masted barquentine of 393 tons, built at Inverkeithing, Scotland, in 1895 and bought in 1906 by the Warrnambool timber merchants F J McGennan & Co for the trade between the western district ports and Melbourne. On 5 February 1911 she left Portland for Melbourne in ballast. Four days of heavy weather, rain and a patent log that had stopped working left her master, Captain Jacobsen, unsure of his position, and at 3.30 am on 10 February he and the mate heard breakers moments before the ship struck the rocks under Cape Patton. All hands got ashore, though the lifeboat was smashed, and the ship was abandoned to the surf. The inquiry found the captain guilty of careless navigation and suspended his certificate for six months. Her anchors and bell were later recovered and are displayed in Apollo Bay.

What is left is a scatter of rusting iron frames and hull plating along the shoreline on the southern side of the cape, some of it buried under road spoil and landslides from the building of the Great Ocean Road above. Underwater, in the shallow gutters of the shore platform, plating and ribs lie among kelp-covered boulders in 2–6 m, alongside the abalone, crayfish, sweep and wrasse that make the whole Cape Patton shoreline a productive but dangerous piece of reef. This is far more a heritage walk than a dive site: most visitors look down on it from the lookout or scramble to it at low tide. The dive itself, whether by the cliff descent or the long swim from Cobble Creek, demands fitness, surf sense and a genuinely flat day, and the reward is a modest amount of wreckage in a spectacular setting. It is listed here for completeness and because it sits beside Ramsden Cave, which shares the same access.

Cape Patton is on the Great Ocean Road roughly 25 km north-east of Apollo Bay and 20 km south-west of Lorne, between Kennett River and Wongarra. Park at the Cape Patton Lookout car park; the wreck lies on the rocks about 200 m west and below, reached by a steep, loose scramble down the cliff that should only be attempted by fit, experienced people in dry weather. The alternative used by most divers is to park near Orchard Creek a short distance west, gear up, enter from the rock platforms beside Cobble Creek and swim east along the shore to the wreck.

Either way you are on your own; there is no boat ramp nearby (Apollo Bay harbour is the closest).

This stretch of coast faces south into the full Bass Strait swell with no offshore reef to break it, and the wreck lies in the wash zone. It requires what the Scuba Doctor calls perfect weather: no swell at all, light offshore north to north-westerly wind and a settled forecast, because conditions at Cape Patton change fast. Any south-west or southerly swell over half a metre makes the shoreline lethal.

Low tide exposes more of the iron for those looking from the rocks; for a swim along the platforms a rising mid tide is easier. Visibility is usually poor from the sand and kelp stirred by even small waves. In practice a few days a year, in February to April.

If entering from Cobble Creek, drop in off the platform in 3–4 m and swim east along the base of the shore reef, keeping the cliff on your left, for about 400–500 m until iron plating and frames appear in the shallow gutters. Photograph the remains in 2–5 m and turn back with at least two-thirds of your gas; the return swim into any current or surge is the hard part. Exit only where you entered.

No operator – occasional visits by experienced shore divers and wreck enthusiasts; most people view the remains from the shoreline at low tide.