Ship derusting has the characteristics of a complex operation environment, high labor intensity and low efficiency. In order to better cope with this situation, a new type of cable-driven parallel derusting robot (CDPDR) is proposed in this article. To improve the positioning accuracy and anti-interference capacity of the motion platform where the end effector is mounted, the system’s dynamic model, considering wave excitation, is established. Further, the controllable workspace and cable tension optimization algorithm are studied. In addition, a fast non-singular terminal sliding-mode controller is designed. Meanwhile, the adaptive technique is used to estimate the disturbance upper bound. Then, the Lyapunov theory is applied to prove the stability of the system. Finally, the performance of the controller is verified by high-fidelity simulations in two different scenarios. The results show that the proposed controller can converge in finite time and maintain small error under multiple external disturbances. The relevant research in this article can provide theoretical guidance for the application of CDPDRs on ships.