Prominent performer owned vessel touring East (9)
I believe the answer is:
headliner
'prominent performer' is the definition.
(headline act)
'owned vessel touring east' is the wordplay.
'owned' becomes 'had' ('have' can be a synonym of 'own').
'vessel' becomes 'liner' (liner is a kind of vessel).
'touring' means one lot of letters goes inside another (tour can mean to go around).
'east' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'had'+'liner'='hadliner'
'hadliner' enclosing 'e' is 'HEADLINER'.
(Other definitions for headliner that I've seen before include "Star performer" , "star attraction" , "What's a star" , "American celebrity" , "top of twenty four [BILL]" .)