Row ship across lake (6)
I believe the answer is:
series
'row' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'ship across lake' is the wordplay.
'ship' becomes 'ss'.
'across' indicates putting letters inside.
'lake' becomes 'erie' (Lake Erie is one of the Canadian/US 'Great Lakes'**).
'ss' going around 'erie' is 'SERIES'.
(Other definitions for series that I've seen before include "Rows" , "Number of related things coming one after another" , "Set of things in line" , "Sequential set" , "Set of linked things" .)