Who should own the ship ?

[rust]

In the setting I am currently working on the colony on Samar will need a
trade route to export the crystals mined on Samar to the industrial planet
Recalada.

Since there is no ship available for such a trade route, the colony has to
order the construction of a ship and to find a captain and crew willing to
operate the ship. The mortgage and the entire operation costs of the ship
will be paid with the profit from the export of the crystals. After 12 years
the bank loan will be paid off.

The colony is not interested in running the ship, and it has neither the per-
sonnel nor the equipment for maintenance and repairs, which therefore
has to be done on Recalada. All the colony wants is a regular and reliable
trade route for the transport of freight and occasional passengers.

With this background, who should be the official owner of the ship ?

On the one hand the colony has financed it and provides the trade goods
which keep its operation profitable, on the other hand a captain who is
the owner of the ship is far more likely to care for it than a colony admi-
nistration without interest and experience in starship operation.

I would be thankful for any opinions and ideas how the colony should han-
dle this.

 

[CosmicGamer]

At first I thought of a subsidized merchant, but that is typically to pay a merchant for an unprofitable trade route.

It sounds to me like this is a profitable operation if it can pay off the construction of a new ship in 12 years.

Perhaps instead of building a ship they just send out a broker to find a merchant ship and crew somewhere else. Pay them the up front costs for changing their area of operation. If they think your estimates of profit are lies, agree to subsidize them if the trade route doesn't provide a certain level of profit.

 

[steelbrok]

Sounds like an ideal scenario for a subsidised merchant

 

[DFW]

Yes, this actually is probably the type of situation which created the subsidized merchant. The colony (gov) holds title and finds a Ships Master to run the "Enterprise".

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Agreed, a Subby is the perfect answer.

Alternately, the colony could set up a Corporation to run the trader, similar to a Utility Company. Government gets a piece of the profits for providing the seed money but doesn't have to get involved in the day-to-day stuff. This is probably just a variation of the Subsidized Merchant contract though.

 

[rust]

So a subby it will be ...

Thank you all very much for your answers.