SS Virawa was British India Steam Navigation Company (BI) steamship.

In 1890 William Denny and Brothers of Dumbarton on the River Leven built a pair of sister ships for BI for £59,600 each.

[7] BI had a controlling interest in the AUSN Co.[8] On 31 August Virawa left Melbourne for Calcutta carrying 530 horses: the largest number yet exported from Australia aboard one steamship.

[7] On 11 September Virawa grounded on Dugdale Reef near Thursday Island in the Torres Strait.

[11] Between 1895 and 1907 Virawa made four voyages taking Indian indentured labourers abroad, as shown in the table below.

[citation needed] On her 1895 voyage she left Calcutta carrying either 683 or 687 labourers (accounts differ), and sailed via the Torres Strait.

[15] On the morning of 4 October Virawa arrived off Newcastle and took on a pilot, who took her into port on the flood tide.

At 0645 hrs she was reaching the end of the breakwater when a schooner, the 63 GRT Bessie Maud, carrying a cargo of timber, crossed her bow.

Virawa then dropped her starboard anchor in error, striking Bessie Maud's deckhouse.

Then Bessie Maud fell clear and sank in only 22 feet (7 m) of water, forming a danger to navigation.

[17] On 12 October the Board met again, and delivered its decision that Captain Edward Anderson had navigated Bessie Maud on a course contrary to harbour regulations, and so bore sole blame for the collision.