Marine casualties of vessel are serious problems on social and national aspects, because it results in sacrifice of lives, a great lose of properties and marine pollution. According to recent statistics of marine casualties of vessel, fishing boats are more likely to be ended in the casualty, and especially, small fishing boats cause much more accidents than any other big vessels. Most of marine casualties were caused by the human factors such as poor watch keeping, inadequate manoeuvering and negligent action for engine, etc. This study is intended to provide navigator of small fishing boat with a specific information of necessary to assist both the manoeuvering and the avoidance of capsizing. The manoeuvering characteristics of ship can be adequately judged by the results of typical ship trials manoeuvres. For this purpose, the author measured the roll responses of a small fishing boat in waves using the real sea experimental measuring system, and analyzed the experimental data by the statistical and spectral analyzing methods to get the characteristics of the roll motion responses of the small boat through the wave directions and the ship's speed.