A muddle lands me on ship (4)
I believe the answer is:
mess
'a muddle' is the definition.
(I know this)
'me on ship' is the wordplay.
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, letters appear on others).
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'me'+'ss'='MESS'
'lands' acts as a link.
This may not be right. It may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mess that I've seen before include "Untidy muddle" , "stew or > jam" , "Untidy confusion" , "dirty and unpleasant" , "State of confusion - where servicemen eat" .)