Bribe sailors on vessel heading for ocean (6)
I believe the answer is:
suborn
'bribe' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sailors on vessel heading for ocean' is the wordplay.
'sailors' becomes 'rn' (abbreviation for Royal Navy).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'vessel' becomes 'sub' (sub is a kind of vessel**).
'heading for' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'ocean' is 'o'.
'sub'+'o'='subo'
'rn' after 'subo' is 'SUBORN'.
(Other definitions for suborn that I've seen before include "Corrupt" , "Induce (someone) to break the law" , "Bribe (someone) to commit an unlawful act" , "Induce by bribery to abandon duty" , "Bribe for evil ends" .)