Ships the man, an artist, back (6)
I believe the answer is:
armada
'ships' is the definition.
(group of ships)
'man an artist back' is the wordplay.
'man' becomes 'adam' (Adam is an example).
'an artist' becomes 'RA' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'back' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'adam'+'ra'='adamra'
'adamra' reversed gives 'ARMADA'.
'the' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for armada that I've seen before include "A great fleet of warships" , "Large Spanish fleet" , "Large war fleet" , "Navy" , "The Spanish force" .)