Empty desolate steamship, with ancient city in ruins (8)
I believe the answer is:
destroys
'ruins' is the definition.
(to destroy is to ruin or break)
'empty desolate steamship with ancient city' is the wordplay.
'empty' suggests removing the centre.
'steamship' becomes 'ss' (nautical abbreviation).
'with' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'ancient city' becomes 'Troy' (Troy was an ancient city).
'desolate' with its centre taken out is 'de'.
'ss' placed around 'troy' is 'stroys'.
'de'+'stroys'='DESTROYS'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for destroys that I've seen before include "undoing" , "Spoils completely, perhaps kills" , "Spoils or ruins completely" , "Demolishes, ruins" , "Puts down" .)