# Ships, Captains, and Sailors

There are 3 primary actors in the Sail ecosystem: the Ship, Captain, and Sailors.

* [**Ship**](https://docs.sail.fun/sail-protocol/sail-protocol/broken-reference)**:** Smart contract where NFTs and ETH are held. Every Ship has two goals:

  1\) Crowdfund ETH to buy NFT(s)\
  2\) Sell the NFT(s)

When a Ship is launched, corresponding ERC20 [$SHIP Tokens](https://docs.sail.fun/sail-protocol/ships/ship-token) are minted that represent the Ship's governance token. $SHIP Tokenholders manage the group of contracts that facilitates the crowdfund of ETH, distribution of ownership, purchase/sale of NFTs, and distribution of profits. **(As of 2023.08.01, new Ships deploy ERC721 NFTs as Membership Tokens instead of ERC20 Tokens. See** [**Boarding Pass NFT**](https://docs.sail.fun/sail-protocol/ships/boarding-pass-nft) **section).** 

* [**Captain**](https://docs.sail.fun/sail-protocol/sail-protocol/broken-reference)**:** The Captain launches the Ship and is responsible for buying and listing NFT(s) for sale.
* [**Sailors**](https://docs.sail.fun/sail-protocol/sail-protocol/broken-reference)**:** Sailors contribute ETH and receive $SHIP governance tokens. They can use the $SHIP tokens to claim their share of ETH from NFT sale proceeds.

Collectively, all members of a Ship are referred to as **the Crew**.