SS Laura was a passenger vessel built for the London and South Western Railway in 1885.

[1] The ship was built of Siemens Martin steel by the Aitken and Mansel of Whiteinch and launched on 20 March 1885[2] by Miss Alice Fleming of Eltham Kent.

On 27 January 1886 she was on a voyage from Southampton to St Malo when the bottom of her high-pressure cylinder blew out, scalding one of the firemen, and disabling the ship about 15 miles north of Guernsey.

[3] In 1910, 21 miles south of the Needle’s lighthouse, she collided with the Norwegian ship Sophie, of Lavinia, bound from Caleta Buena for Hamburg loaded with nitrate.

She was picked up by the steamer Magic Star and towed to the entrance of Southampton water.