Who is Shipowner? A Shipowner freight market practitioner?

Shipowner also known as ‘owner’ – Note that often ‘owner’ is spelt in the plural as ‘owners’ even when only one owner is specified, i.e. many Charter Party clauses state, for example, that ‘owners are to arrange for bunker survey’ or ‘owners are to appoint agents at load port’, etc.

Usually, in Charter Party the plural form is used. The Shipowner owns the ships just like you might be described as owning a house or a car. In other words, the Shipowner may own a ship outright with no mortgage, in which case the vessel is ‘paid off’, or have a mortgage via a bank or government loan.