Despite the prominent headland, no lighthouse was built here. A number of shipwrecks and maritime incidents occurred at Long Reef, including the sinking of the Windsor in 1816, the Greyhound in 1904, the steamer Duckenfield which sank in 1889, and the Sylphide, a barque which sunk off Long Reef in 1877. In the 1970s and 1980s many vessels were intentionally scuttled off Long Reef for the formation of artificial reefs. Prominent among these were the Manly ferries, Dee Why and Bellubera. Others include the 50-metre-long bucket-dredge Coolooli, the tug boats Meggol and Himma and HMAS Doomba. There is a record of 25 shipwrecks and scuttlings associated with Long Reef on the Australian National Shipwreck Database (not including some of those listed above).