The hull monitoring systems of container ships with four long-base gages give enough information for identifying the hull girder loads such as bending and torsional moments. But such a load-identification for container ships has not been known. In this paper, a load-identification method is suggested in terms of a linear matrix equation that the measured strain vector equals to the multiplication of the transformation matrix and the desired strain component vector. The equation is proved to be mathematically complete by the property of positive-definite determinant of the transformation matrix. The method is applied to a hull stress monitoring system for 8100TED container ship during sea trial, and the estimated external loads illustrate reasonable results in comparison with the pre-estimated results. This moment decomposition concept has also been tested in real operation conditions. The typical phenomena over the Suez Canal illustrated very suitable results comparing with the physical understandings. Henceforth, one can effectively use the proposed concept to monitor the hull girder loads such as bending and torsional moments.