And the ship skirts the shore (5)
I believe the answer is:
sands
'the shore' is the definition.
(sands is a kind of shore)
'and the ship skirts' is the wordplay.
'the ship' becomes 'ss'.
'skirts' indicates putting letters inside.
'and' going into 'ss' is 'SANDS'.
(Other definitions for sands that I've seen before include "The Goodwin - -" , "They run out (of time)" , "Smooths" , "Polishes (eg, wood)" , "You may see them by sea" .)