The fracture of water ballast tank (WBT) coatings due to thermal stresses is widely recognised as an issue. Upon coating fracture, rapid corrosion of the tanker steel structure will occur, leading to expensive structure repairs or even tanker scrapping. In this project, the fracture behaviour of two experimental WBT coatings, referred to as A and B, in the forms of free film and substrated coatings was investigated. Static tensile tests and fatigue tests of the substrated coatings were performed. A finite element model of coating cracking was developed. Thermal stress and J-integral of surface cracking defects in substrated coatings were calculated using the model, in which the effects of defect size, coating thickness, and thermal strain on coating fracture were investigated. For the first time, fracture mechanics was used to explain WBT coating fracture behaviour. The J-integral of surface defects was used to predict the onset strain of coating cracking under mechanical strains in laboratory and under thermal strains in service. A theoretical comparison between the cracking drive forces in terms of J - integrals in WBT coatings under thermal strains and mechanical strains was performed.