A novel model reference adaptive robust fuzzy control algorithm is presented for ship steering autopilot, which is an uncertain nonlinear system. In the proposed algorithm, fuzzy logic systems have been used to approximate lumped unknown function in the ship steering systems and the adaptive mechanism with minimal learning parameter, i.e. only one parameter, has been achieved by use of Lyapunov approach. The proposed methodology is verified using the simulation mode of the Dalian Maritime University's ocean-going training ship named Yulong. It is shown that the proposed algorithm guarantees that the ship steering autopilot system is asymptotically stable and its tracking error can approach to zero.