Unmanned ships are a new concept in the maritime sector. The concept of unmanned ships is driven by safety of life, cost and the shortage in seafarers. However, it is uncertain how the change from manned to unmanned ships in?uences the design and exploitation of the ship. Therefore, the in?uences on the ship will be researched in this thesis. The results from this thesis can be used by various organizations, researchers, and designers, to determine whether the concept of unmanned ships is feasible. The main question is: What are the in?uences of unmanned shipping on the design considerations and what cost saving can be achieved by removing crew related equipment and the crew itself from merchant ships? First, it has been researched how the design requirements change under international law. The design spiral has been used to identify the parts of the ship design that change, because of the changed requirements. These parts are: deadweight, lightweight, powering, machinery selection, general arrangement and costing. To quantify the change in deadweight, lightweight and powering, a parametric study has been carried out and applied to di?erent sized ships. Additionally, an analysis on what additional equipment should be installed on the ship, to make unmanned shipping possible, has been performed. Furthermore, a cost analysis has been carried out to quantify the cost savings associated with the removal of the equipment which is no longer needed for unmanned shipping. The change in cost is the budget for additional equipment required for unmanned shipping. For the cost analysis, building cost, maintenance cost, fuel saving, manning cost, insurance cost, depreciation cost and interest cost have been taken into account. The cost analysis has been applied to di?erent sizes of ships. Subsequently, the parametric study and cost analysis have been applied to a speci?c case. In addition the change in capacity, dimensions, trim, stability, seakeeping, general arrangement plan and tonnage have been analyzed. To check the sensitivity of the results, a sensitivity study for uncertain parameters has been performed. The di?erent analyses showed that the change in weight and power is minimal, but that the saving in cost is signi?cant. In conclusion, it can be stated that a signi?cant cost reduction can be achieved by removing the accommodation and related systems from ships.