American aboard drifting Italian ship sunk during war (9)
I believe the answer is:
lusitania
'ship sunk during war' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'american aboard drifting italian' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'US' (United States).
'aboard' is an insertion indicator.
'drifting' is an anagram indicator.
'italian' with letters rearranged gives 'litania'.
'us' inserted into 'litania' is 'LUSITANIA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lusitania that I've seen before include "area close to Spain" , "old Roman province" , "part of the Roman Empire" , "Ship that was sunk" , "I nail us at the torpedoed liner" .)