The SS Schomberg was a clipper built in Aberdeen by Alexander Hall & Co. for "the Black Ball line" (which was a subsidiary of James Baines & Co., of Liverpool) for carrying large cargoes and steerage passengers, and to "outdo the Americans".

[2] The Encyclopedia Britannica tell us "The frames of the vessel were of British Oak, and the planking consisted of four layers of Scotch Larch, each 2 inches thick.

However, The book "Famous Wrecks" by Jack Loney (Marine History Publications, Geelong Australia) conversely states that the hull was constructed with three skins - one fore & aft, plus two diagonal and fastened with screw-threaded trunnels.

Captain James Nicol "Bully" Forbes, an Aberdeen man, of great reputation, who had become famous at the helm of the Marco Polo and Lightning, was appointed to command her.

The score is dedicated to Mrs. Charles Schomberg.In a letter to the S.A. Register it was said "The vessel, with the provisions for the voyage out and home, cost £60,000, and, I understand is not fully insured.

She was nearing the end of her voyage, close inshore off Cape Otway at Curdies Inlet (now called Schomberg Reef),[10] east of Peterborough and 150 miles westward of Melbourne.

The Captain was cleared, as the sandbank was uncharted and there was "not enough evidence to show he had not used every precaution necessary to save his ship"; public outrage ensued.

At a mass meeting of the passengers, held in Melbourne at the Mechanics' Institute, on 3 February 1856, Forbes was severely censured and some went so far as to suggest that he was so disgusted at the slowness of the passage that he let the ship go ashore on purpose.

[13] The stern went down in 10 metres of water off the reef, but the Christchurch (New Zealand) newspaper The Sun on 15 March 1975 published an article reporting that the remains of a major portion of the bow upperworks (the hull above the load waterline) had washed up on the West Coast of New Zealand, near Tuperikaka Creek in the South Island.

The remains had broken free from the bottom of the ship and as a partially submerged wreck drifted 2414 km across the Tasman Sea.

[14] It also appears that a large "broadside" section of the vessel drifted to Anderson's Inlet near the present township of Inverloch.

[15] Coastal erosion has revealed significant evidence of the Amazon wreck since 2016 which raises the possibility that some of this material may in fact be from the Schomberg.

Relics at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum include a cannon, a communion set, a brass candlestick, and a diamond ring.