Ship to navigate round a mine at first (7)
I believe the answer is:
steamer
'ship' is the definition.
(steamer is a kind of ship)
'navigate round a mine at first' is the wordplay.
'navigate' becomes 'steer' (I've seen this before**).
'round' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'at first' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'mine' is 'm'.
'a'+'m'='am'
'steer' placed around 'am' is 'STEAMER'.
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for steamer that I've seen before include "like the African Queen!" , "Sea term (anag.)" , "Vessel at sea or in kitchen" , "housed in galley" , "Boat; type of saucepan" .)