Awkwardly sat in bow clutching a sailor (9)
I believe the answer is:
boatswain
'sailor' is the definition.
(boatswain is a kind of sailor)
'awkwardly sat in bow clutching a' is the wordplay.
'awkwardly' indicates anagramming the letters.
'clutching' is an insertion indicator.
'sat'+'in'+'bow'='satinbow'
'satinbow' anagrammed gives 'boatswin'.
'boatswin' going around 'a' is 'BOATSWAIN'.
(Other definitions for boatswain that I've seen before include "I'm chaired to work" , "Seaman" , "Crew member" , "who has a pipe with a mate?" , "Officer on board" .)