Chronicle English sailor managed to set up (7)
I believe the answer is:
narrate
'chronicle' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'english sailor managed to set up' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'sailor' becomes 'tar' (tar is a kind of sailor).
'managed' becomes 'ran' (I've seen this before).
'to set up' is a reversal indicator.
'e'+'tar'+'ran'='etarran'
'etarran' back-to-front is 'NARRATE'.
(Other definitions for narrate that I've seen before include "Give a detailed account" , "Relate, recount" , "Rare ant (anag.)" , "Relate events" , "rehearse" .)