A detection scheme for line spectrum of ship-radiated noise is proposed using Duffing oscillator. The chaotic trajectory of Duffing oscillator is analyzed and the state equation of the system is improved to detect weak periodic signals in different frequencies. According to the simulation results, the phase transforms of Duffing oscillator are sensitive to periodic signals and immune to the random noise and the periodic interference signals which have larger angular frequency difference from the referential signal. By employing Lyapunov exponents in the field of detection as the criteria for chaos, the phase transforms of dynamic behaviors in quantity are successfully determined. Meanwhile, the threshold value in critical state has been evaluated more accurately. Based on the phase transforms of Duffing oscillator, a new method for detecting line spectrum of ship-radiated noise is given. Three types of ship-radiated noise signals are analyzed and the values of line spectrum are acquired successfully by this method. The experimental results show that this method has high sensitivity and high resolution.