Hardy girl in the empty ship (4)
I believe the answer is:
tess
'hardy girl' is the definition.
'the empty ship' is the wordplay.
'empty' suggests removing the centre.
'ship' becomes 'ss'.
'the' with its middle removed is 'te'.
'te'+'ss'='TESS'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for tess that I've seen before include "tragic heroine" , "- - of the d'Urbervilles" , "Lady" , "Thomas Hardy girl" , "20 heroine" .)