This paper describes an extensive experimental evaluation of eleven marine propeller models for a large high-speed inland ferry with a shallow draft. Six propellers were designed at 30.6 knots and the others were designed at 35.0 knots under each normal continuous output. Most of the suction side of the propeller blades was covered with cavitation and significant thrust breakdown was revealed; this is called the trans-cavitating condition. In each case, the design of the propeller was made by not only current methods but also a newly developed method which can theoretically control sheet cavitation on the propeller blades so as to satisfy a given thrust with optimum efficiency. The propellers designed by the former method and the latter one are called conventional propellers (CP) and trans-cavitating propellers (TCP), respectively. First of all, this paper proposes a method to evaluate the propeller efficiency working behind a ship model under the trans-cavitating condition and a given propeller load condition. Secondly, experimental evaluation of TCPs was made in the SRI large cavitation tunnel with respect to the propeller thrust, propeller efficiency, pressure fluctuations and erosion. For the 30 knot case, conventional propellers still kept the same level of efficiency and lower pressure fluctuations than the TCPs, while for the 35 knot case, some TCPs showed better performance not only for the efficiency but also for the pressure fluctuations. The present paper concludes that the TCP is promising for highly loaded propellers working behind a high-speed ship with a shallow-draft. Further investigations on the design of the transcavitating propeller and experimental techniques at low cavitation number are needed to improve the propeller performance with respect to the efficiency and pressure fluctuations.