Large amount of steel gear destabilised one section of ship (8)
I believe the answer is:
steerage
'section of ship' is the definition.
(I know that steerage is part of ship)
'large amount of steel gear destabilised one' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'amount' could be 'rag' (rag is a kind of amount) and 'rag' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for steerage that I've seen before include "Densely-packed travellers here" , "Part of ship with lowest fares" , "cheap way to travel" , "Cheapest part of liner" , "space on vessel" .)