The SS Barwon was a three-masted, schooner-rigged iron screw steamer of 406 tons, built by R Little and Co at Greenock in 1863 and 172 feet long, employed on the coastal run between Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. On 3 April 1871, carrying flour and passengers, she was feeling her way along the coast in thick fog when she struck Wadmores Rock about 200 m off the eastern side of Cape Bridgewater. Her master tried to run her onto the beach in Bridgewater Bay but she sank in deeper water short of it; everyone aboard got ashore. The Historic Shipwreck Trail notes that her remains were visible from the cliffs for years, and the site is one of the stops on the Discovery Coast section of the trail. She was one of a cluster of fog and gale losses on this stretch – the Marie in 1851 and the Jane in 1863 were wrecked at the cape before her – that made Cape Bridgewater as feared as Cape Nelson.

The wreck lies in about 5 m near Fisherman Cove on the sheltered eastern side of the cape, and after 150 years is a scatter of iron – boiler, frames, plating and fittings – on and around the reef, overgrown with kelp and sheltering the crayfish, abalone and reef fish of the bay. Horseshoe Reef, 160 m to the south, is a shallow reef in 2–8 m that the Scuba Doctor describes as having lots of marine life and being suitable for snorkelling, facing east near the cove in the quietest water on the cape. Together they make an easy, shallow boat dive or snorkel five minutes from the Bridgewater beach ramp, suitable for Open Water divers and families in the boat, and the natural warm-up or second dive on a day at the seal colony 1.5 km further south. Fur seals from the colony visit, and the cold, rich Bonney Upwelling water gives the kelp and sponges of the reef their vigour. The Barwon is a protected historic shipwreck; nothing may be disturbed.

Launch at the Cape Bridgewater beach ramp on Bridgewater Bay (21 km west of Portland; conditions-dependent) and run about 1 km south along the western shore of the bay to Fisherman Cove, five minutes; or launch at the Portland Harbour ramps and run 20 km west around Cape Nelson, about 45 minutes. The Barwon lies about 200 m off the shore near the cove and Horseshoe Reef 160 m south of it; the seal colony is 1.5 km further south. Cape Bridgewater tide and swell forecasts apply.

Portland SCUBA supplies air.

Fisherman Cove faces east and is sheltered by Cape Bridgewater, with waves averaging under 1 m; the Scuba Doctor calls both sites weather-dependent and best in good conditions with a low swell and light offshore westerly winds. Easterly and north-easterly winds put swell into Bridgewater Bay and onto the cove, the shallow reef and the beach ramp. The Barwon at 5 m and Horseshoe Reef at 2–8 m are surgy in any swell.

Cold upwelling water is common in summer; autumn is clearest. The most sheltered diving on the cape.

Anchor on sand off Fisherman Cove in 5–6 m, descend and search the reef and sand for the Barwon's boiler, frames and plating, working around the scatter, then swim south 160 m to Horseshoe Reef and explore its kelp ledges in 2–8 m, returning to the boat. Turn at half gas; no stop is needed at this depth.

No dive charter – private boats from the Bridgewater ramp or Portland; Portland SCUBA day trips by arrangement.