Sailors with trouble on deck (5)
I believe the answer is:
adorn
'deck' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'sailors with trouble' is the wordplay.
'sailors' becomes 'rn' (abbreviation for Royal Navy).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'trouble' becomes 'ado' (I've seen this before).
'rn' after 'ado' is 'ADORN'.
'on' is the link.
(Other definitions for adorn that I've seen before include "Festoon" , "Bedeck" , "dress" , "Make more attractive" , "Deck" .)