Speke was one of the last and largest of the great steel sailing ships: a three-masted, full-rigged ship of 2,876 gross tons built by T. R. Oswald and Co at Milford Haven, Wales, in 1891, and the second-largest ship-rigged vessel ever built.

She spent fifteen years in the bulk trades – grain, coal, nitrate – around the Horn and the Cape. On 22 February 1906, in ballast from Peru to Sydney and approaching Port Phillip Heads to pick up orders, she was caught by strong westerly winds, became unmanageable and ran ashore on Phillip Island's south coast at Kitty Miller Bay; one man drowned trying to get a line ashore, the rest of the crew were saved, and the ship broke up where she lay. The bow is the famous part.

It stands on the drying reef at Watt Point, a rusting stem and forefoot rising from the rocks, walkable at low tide at the end of the Kitty Miller Bay track and one of the most photographed shipwrecks in Victoria. Close inspection shows the concreted stem with deteriorated plating and, unusually, timber construction in the bow structure; an anchor cathead with wooden sheaves lies nearby. Underwater, the midships and stern including the rudderpost lie off the beach and have been heavily eroded by a century of Southern Ocean swell, so that the diver finds plates, frames and fittings scattered down the reef from 3 m to about 26 m rather than a hull.

Kelp, sweep, wrasse, zebrafish and crayfish live in the wreckage and seals from the nearby colonies pass through. As a dive it is marginal – an 800 m cliff-track carry to a surf-zone entry that is safe only after days of northerlies – and most visitors experience the Speke on foot. For divers it suits fit, experienced people on Phillip Island when a glassy day coincides with high tide, and it is worth it for the rare chance to swim around the bones of one of the biggest sailing ships ever built.

Drive Melbourne–Phillip Island via the Bass Highway and Phillip Island Road, then Ventnor Road and Kitty Miller Bay Road to the car park above the bay (about 2 hours; toilets, no other facilities). Walk 50 m down to the beach, then about 800 m around the western side of the cove on a steep, uneven dirt track to Watt Point – a long carry with dive gear, which is why most people snorkel or simply walk to the wreck. The bow section is on the rock platform at the point and is walkable at low tide; the underwater remains lie off the point in 3–26 m.

Enter from the rocks at high tide on a flat day. Phillip Island Nature Parks manages the reserve; keep to the track.

Kitty Miller Bay is on the Southern Ocean side of Phillip Island and the Speke lies in the surf zone at its western point. The Scuba Doctor's guidance is that the best conditions come after several days of still weather or northerly winds and that it is best dived at high tide, whenever it is safe to do so – which is to say on a small minority of days. Any south-westerly swell produces breaking waves over the wreck and dangerous surge on the rock entry; westerly winds push swell into the bay.

Visibility is 3–10 m and aerated close in. The cliff track is slippery when wet. Realistically a snorkel or shallow dive in the first few metres on a glassy day; the deeper midships and stern remains to 26 m are for experienced divers with a very flat sea.

At high tide on a flat day, enter from the rocks beside the bow section at Watt Point, swim out over the concreted stem and plating in 3–6 m and follow the line of the hull seaward past the anchor cathead to the eroded midships and the rudderpost in deeper water (to 26 m for those equipped), then return to the point before the tide drops and the surge over the rocks increases. 40 minutes.

No operator dives it; it is a famous walk-to shipwreck (the Kitty Miller Bay walk) and an occasional snorkel or independent shore dive by Phillip Island locals on flat days. Island Dive (Cowes) can advise on conditions.