Struts of wood always aboard ship (7)
I believe the answer is:
sashays
'struts' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'wood always aboard ship' is the wordplay.
'wood' becomes 'ash' (wood from an ash tree).
'always' becomes 'ay' (archaic term for 'always').
'aboard' indicates putting letters inside.
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'ash'+'ay'='ashay'
'ashay' placed into 'ss' is 'SASHAYS'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for sashays that I've seen before include "Walks in showy casual way, mostly in America" , "Dance moves" .)