The qualit12y of shafting alignment is related to the reliability and safety of a ship’s operation, and bearing displacement adjustment (BDA) plays a key role in shafting alignment. To solve the problems encountered in ship shafting alignment in the actual construction, this study focused on the investigation of the shafting load measurement system based on the strain gauge method (SGM), used the optimization method based on quadratic programming (QP) to calculate the BDA and adopted algorithms based on the bearing load influence coefficients (BICs) to forecast the load after the adjustment. The experimental work, as well as the measurement, calculation and analysis of several real ships, indicated that the measurement, optimization and forecasting methods of the bearing load of the propulsion shafting of large ships in this study would be significant for guiding the actual construction work of ship shafting alignment.