We propose an efficient cooperative ARQ (Automatic Repeat reQuest) scheme for single-hop and multi-hop underwater acoustic communications, in which cooperative nodes are used to provide more reliable alternative paths for a specific source-to-destination connection. This alternative path has higher channel quality than that of the direct source-destination path. In addition, during a packet-relay through multiple hops, the typical acknowledgement (ACK) signal is replaced with overhearing data packet returned back from the next hop. The usage of overhearing as an ACK improves the system performance. In this paper, we evaluate the proposed scheme by comparing it with a conventional S&W ARQ in terms of throughput efficiency. Computer simulation results show that the proposed cooperative retransmission scheme can significantly improve the throughput by increasing the probability of successful retransmission.