Dish for preparing oakum to protect area on ship (8)
I believe the answer is:
moussaka
'dish' is the definition.
(moussaka is a kind of dish)
'preparing oakum to protect area on ship' is the wordplay.
'preparing' is an anagram indicator.
'to protect' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'on' means one lot of letters goes inside another (as in clothing \'on\' a person).
'ship' becomes 'ss'.
'oakum' is an anagram of 'mouka'.
'mouka' going around 'a' is 'mouaka'.
'mouaka' placed around 'ss' is 'MOUSSAKA'.
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for moussaka that I've seen before include "Dish of minced lamb with aubergines in a white sauce" , "Greek dish of minced lamb, aubergines, etc" , "Greek dish of lamb and aubergine" , "Greek aubergine-based dish" , "Greek dish of layers of minced meat, aubergine etc topped with cheese sauce" .)