One of the most important design procedures for large sized structures is the evaluation of fracture strength against fatigue and brittle fractures threatening to occur in their steel members. In this paper, the safety assessment based upon the knowledge about the fracturing characteristics of such ship structures was discussed, which can be estimated from such phenomena as fatigue crack propagation and brittle fractures, as obtained by employing fracture mechanics at the basic design stage. Model tests with a partial structure specimen of full size was carried out to authenticate a question as to whether or not the fracturing characteristics of such sophisticated structures could be estimated with precision from ordinary scale specimen tests, It was shown that the behviour of fatigue crack growth of large sized structures in this study could be predicted from the results of ordinary scale specimen test.