Attendants — we dart about in ship (8)
I believe the answer is:
stewards
'attendants' is the definition.
(I know this)
'we dart about in ship' is the wordplay.
'about' is an anagram indicator.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'we'+'dart'='wedart'
'wedart' with letters rearranged gives 'teward'.
'teward' put into 'ss' is 'STEWARDS'.
(Other definitions for stewards that I've seen before include "Racing authorities" , "They look after passengers on aircraft or ship" , "They look after passengers on aircraft and ships" , "Crew members" , "waiters" .)