Naval vessels are not regulated by the class rules, but by the special regulations. This study introduces the concept and characteristics of the regulations of U.S. Navy which has been the most reliable standards in design of naval vessels in Korea, and intends to help designers to comprehend the effect of each regulation on design results. Also, an optimum structural design method combined with the structural analysis theory is proposed for naval vessels following the regulations of U.S. Navy and is applied to the design of a naval vessel. After application of the optimum design method, its validity is shown and an optimum design of midship section is obtained. In addition, the optimum spaces or longitudinals and transverse web frames are found and the effect of main design variables can be investigated.