Person in charge on ship is a star (9)
I believe the answer is:
headliner
'star' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'person in charge on ship' is the wordplay.
'person in charge' becomes 'head' (I've seen this before).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'ship' becomes 'liner' (liner is a kind of ship**).
'head'+'liner'='HEADLINER'
'is a' is the link.
(Other definitions for headliner that I've seen before include "American celebrity" , "What's a star" , "star attraction" , "Star performer" , "top of twenty four [BILL]" .)