In view of the inconsistent principles of surface patches division in current ship hull surface representation, which makes it difficult to fully preserve the characteristics of the ship hull surface, a universal basic principle for automated hull surface patches division based on non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) is proposed. Take the transom-stern flat-bottomed ships as examples, firstly, according to the principle of patches division, the hull surface areas are divided based on the basic characteristic lines. Then, the boundary lines of each surface patches, the constituent elements of each patch and the splicing order between the surface patches are determined according to the specific characteristics of each area. Finally, based on the DPS software developed by Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co., Ltd., the construction process and splicing method of hull surface patches are described in detail. The hull surface patches representation results of full-scale ship verified the feasibility and advantages of this scheme.