Hand is redundant without ship (6)
I believe the answer is:
needle
'hand' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I don't understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for needle that I've seen before include "Pin" , "See 6" , "Sewing item" , "narrow-eyed one" , "Sewing instrument" .)