Abstract: Utilizing the new energy technology and seeking for high energy efficiency, green ship is a significant development for the shipping industry in the future, and the tribology will play an important role during this developing process. It is the problems of internal friction and external friction that actually lead to the ship's power loss and energy consumption increase, the former includes the friction problems existing in the rubbing pairs of main engine, auxiliary engine and shafting system, while the latter aims at the friction in the interface between hull and water, as well as that of hull and atmosphere. Analyzing the relationship between green ship and tribology, this paper discusses these two fields from three specific domains in the view of systematical standpoint, which are tribology problems of new energy ship, tribological research for hull resistance reducing and energy efficiency improving, and finally, the blueprint and entry points for relative study on tribology that takes the shipping industry as its application field are prospected by reviewing and dissecting the research progress and development trend.