Intensity distributing characters on the axis of Gaussian beam propagating in ship wakes and on the cross-section vertical to the beam axis are investigated to understand the transferring property of laser beam in wakes and to provide the theoretic basis for detecting ship wakes by forward light beam attenuation.Based on the solution of the radiation transfer equation in the narrow angle approximation,the formulations for radiation intensity,which is divided into un-scattered intensity and scattered intensity denoting the extent of multiple scattering,detected by received section are derived.Given a typical bubbles′ distributing function,numerical computations and analysis are given for the un-scattered intensity and scattered intensity on the beam axis relating to detector′s view of field,optical depth,and beam size; similarly the numerical results are also presented for the radiation intensity on the cross-section vertical to the beam axis relating to transverse distance and beam size.The results show that the multiple scattering coming from laser beam propagating in ship wakes is obvious,and the extent of multiple scattering has a close connection with view of field,beam size,optical depth,and transverse distance.