Objective To know about the mental health of navy soldiers during long distant sailing and its influencing factors, and to put forward the effective preventive and treatment measures. Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among 2 987 randomly chosen navy soldiers experiencing long distant sailing. The data collected included general situation, disease prevalence, utilization and cognition of mental health services and mental health state.The structure equation model was used to analyze the influencing factors. Results Totally 2 695 effective questionnaires were collected. Young males were the dominant participants, with a mean age of (25.0±4.3) years old and a mean period of military service of (5.9±4.3) years. It was showed that 76.8% (2 070/2 695) of the soldiers thought that they had no mental illness, 44.5% (1 200/2 695) of the soldiers admitted that they liked army life. The structure equation model analysis showed that the mental health of the navy soldiers was associated with the utilization of mental health service and the physical health was also related to the mental health. Conclusion The navy soldiers experiencing long distant sailing should make full use of the mental health service, and preventive intervention should be given to targeted population so as to improve the mental health of navy soldiers experiencing long distant sailing.