Made the French ship smaller (4)
I believe the answer is:
less
'smaller' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'made the french ship' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'ship' could be 'ss' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain) and 'ss' is found in the answer.
'the french' could be 'le' ('the' in French) and 'le' is found within the answer.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for less that I've seen before include "So-called St James" , "See 12" , "minor" , "Comparatively little" , "In smaller quantity" .)