The ship that exiled former French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte used to sneak back into France from Elba has been found on the ocean floor off Australia, a Queensland shipwreck hunter has claimed.

Australian filmmaker and shipwreck hunter Ben Cropp said he found the final resting place of the 337-metric-ton brig Swiftsure in shallow, crocodile-infested waters off far north Queensland state, local media reported on Monday.

Queensland authorities are verifying the claim.

The significance of the find dates to 1815, when Napoleon was living in exile on the island of Elba, off Italy, after his defeat during his march on Russia in 1814.

Napoleon escaped the island by commandeering a 337-ton brig named L'Inconstant to retake his homeland, famously confronting the soldiers of King Louis XVIII and ultimately forcing the monarch into exile.

The United Kingdom later seized the brig as a war prize after the Battle of Waterloo, which ended Napoleon's comeback. The British renamed the ship the Swiftsure and used it on the Britain-to-Australia shipping route.

The brig was believed to have sank after striking the Great Barrier Reef while en route from Sydney to Mauritius in 1829.

Cropp made the discovery in November 2014, but kept it a secret as plans were made to create a film of the discovery. Those plans were abandoned due to the site being highly decomposed and in crocodile-infested waters.