Based on the Laplace transform, a direct derivation of the ordinary differential equations for the three-dimensional transient free-surface Green function in marine hydrodynamics is presented. The results for the 3D Green function and all its spatial derivatives are a set of fourth-order ordinary differential equations, which are identical with that of Clement (1998). All of these results may be used to accelerate numerical computation for the time-domain boundary element method in marine hydrodynamics.