A robust adaptive control approach is proposed for underactuated surface ship linear path-tracking control system based on the backstepping control method and Lyapunov stability theory. By employing T-S fuzzy system to approximate nonlinear uncertainties of the control system, the proposed scheme is developed by combining “dynamic surface control” (DSC) and “minimal learning parameter” (MLP) techniques. The substantial problems of “explosion of complexity” and “dimension curse” existed in the traditional backstepping technique are circumvented, and it is convenient to implement in applications. In addition, an auxiliary system is developed to deal with the effect of input saturation constraints. The control algorithm avoids the singularity problem of controller and guarantees the stability of the closed-loop system. The tracking error converges to an arbitrarily small neighborhood. Finally, MATLAB simulation results are given from an application case of Dalian Maritime University training ship to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.