The turbid underwater propagation of Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) vortex beams is investigated experimentally with different topological charges, and Gaussian beams are used as the reference light. Results show that LG beams with large topological charge have strong underwater propagation capability when water is relatively turbid (the attenuation length is not higher than 0.118 m). With respect to the energy density distribution of the transmission beams, the transmission distance determines the optimal topological charge, and it is independent of the water turbidity. The experimental method and measured results have potential guiding significance and engineering value for the applications of LG vortex beams in underwater optical communication, underwater target detection and other fields.