Abstract
During ship sailing on a given shipping route in real weather conditions all propulsion system performance parameters of the ship change along with changes of instantaneous total resistance and speed of the ship. In this paper results of calculations are presented of distribution function and mean statistical values of screw propeller thrust, rotational speed and efficiency as well as propulsion engine power output and specific fuel oil consumption occurring on selected shipping routes. On this basis new guidelines for ship propulsion system design procedure are formulated.