ship-owner

A ship-owner is the owner of a commercial ship. In the commercial sense of the term, a ship-owner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, usually for delivering cargo at a certain freight rate. Ship-owners typically hire a licenced crew and captain rather than take charge of the vessel in person. Usually the ship-owner is organized through a company, but also people and investment funds can be ship owners. If owned by a shipping company, the ship-owner usually performs technical management of the vessel through the company, though this can also be outsourced or relayed onto the shipper through bare boat charter.
See more at Wikipedia.org...