'Skipper' is Dutch for 'ship-captain' — from 'schip' (ship). Dutch seafaring stamped into English.
The captain of a ship, especially a small trading or fishing vessel; the captain of a sports team.
From Middle Dutch schipper (a captain of a ship, literally a shipper), the agent noun from schip (ship), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (ship), from PIE *skeyb- (to cut, to split — because early vessels were made from split or hollowed logs). The Dutch -er suffix forms agent nouns identically to English -er: a skipper is one who operates a schip. Dutch maritime vocabulary permeated English heavily during the 14th–17th centuries
English borrowed heavily from Dutch for maritime vocabulary during the 14th-17th centuries, when the Netherlands was a dominant sea power. 'Skipper,' 'yacht,' 'dock,' 'freight,' 'buoy,' 'deck,' 'hull,' 'boom,' 'smuggle,' and 'reef' are all Dutch borrowings. The PIE root *skeyb- (to cut, to split) connects 'ship' to 'skiff' — early ships were made