Feeling tense after having dispatched one crew (9)
I believe the answer is:
sentiment
'feeling' is the definition.
(sentiment is a kind of feeling)
'tense after having dispatched one crew' is the wordplay.
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'after having' says to put letters next to each other.
'dispatched' becomes 'sent' (I've seen this before).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'crew' becomes 'men' (I've seen this before**).
'sent'+'i'+'men'='sentimen'
't' after 'sentimen' is 'SENTIMENT'.
(Other definitions for sentiment that I've seen before include "Emotional feeling" , "Slush" , "Emotional thought" , "Emotion, self-indulgent or insincere perhaps" , "Tender or romantic emotion" .)