Fresh alert's given with ship lacking traditional means of navigation? (8)
I believe the answer is:
starless
'lacking traditional means of navigation?' is the definition.
(stars were once used for navigation)
'fresh alert's given with ship' is the wordplay.
'fresh' indicates an anagram.
'given with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'alerts' is an anagram of 'starle'.
'starle'+'ss'='STARLESS'
(Other definitions for starless that I've seen before include "Clouded over (of the night sky)" , "Like The Sky At Night, sometimes" , "Dark" , "like a low-budget movie?" , "with nobody famous appearing" .)