Declare free of guilt from sailors awful love (7)
I believe the answer is:
absolve
'declare free of guilt' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'sailors awful love' is the wordplay.
'sailors' becomes 'abs' (AB is short for able seaman).
'awful' indicates anagramming the letters.
'love' with letters rearranged gives 'olve'.
'abs'+'olve'='ABSOLVE'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for absolve that I've seen before include "Grant remission of sins" , "Excuse" , "Exculpate" , "Fully pardon" , "Forgive sins" .)