Delay in trade dispatched by ship (9)
I believe the answer is:
tardiness
'delay' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'in trade dispatched by ship' is the wordplay.
'dispatched' is an anagram indicator (letters dispatched to new positions).
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'in'+'trade'='intrade'
'intrade' is an anagram of 'tardine'.
'tardine'+'ss'='TARDINESS'
(Other definitions for tardiness that I've seen before include "Lateness" , "Unpunctuality" , "being a little late" , "Delay" , "Being behind quality" .)