Modern ocean-going vessels are highly dynamically loaded all-welded structures. Traditionally, this fact has been taken into account in the design of ship structures by keeping the overall stress level within permissible limits and by limiting notch effects in the design of local structures. With an improving knowledge of loads and the rapid development of calculation means more detailed calculation-based methods are increasingly introduced. A brief review on fatigue assessment methods used in the design of ship structures has been given during the 1993 IIW International Conference in Glasgow. The rapid development during recent years underlines the importace of the subject and justifies its extended discussion in this paper.