Abstract: An experiment of interaction between a solitary wave and a submerged plate with finite length and finite width is conducted in a wave basin. A new system of the multi-lens stereo reconstruction is proposed to measure the local deformation of the free surface in the horizontal area of 1.7 m\times 1.6 m in the experiment. A set of underwater force measuring system consisted of four force balances is designed to obtain the wave loads on the submerged plate, without the interference on the surface elevation measurement. A solitary wave is generated in a wave basin of uniform water depth. The wave amplitude is 0.16 m and the still water depth is 0.4 m. The submerged depth of the horizontal plate is 0.1 m. No wave breaking occurs during the wave propagation. The three-dimensional deformations of the free surface elevation lead to the spatial and temporal variation of the solitary wave amplitude. It is found that, for the case of the present wave condition and the submerged plate, the surface elevation reaches the highest at the centerline of the plate near its trailing edge, and decreases along the span direction. The time series of the surface elevation measured by the multi-lens stereo reconstruction method agree well with the wave elevations measured by the wave gauges, which validates the new wave surface measurement system. The loading processes of the horizontal force, vertical force and the pitch moment are proposed as 6 typical phases in which the characteristics of the measured wave surface elevation are discussed. The wave surfaces measured by the multi-lens stereo reconstruction method are given at the corresponding time as the peaks of the vertical force and the pitch moment occurs. The multi-lens stereo reconstruction method could be used to measure the wave field for physical model experiments in a wave basin as a new tool.