Take boat back to svelte sweetheart on ship, showing nobility (10)
I believe the answer is:
worthiness
'nobility' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'take boat back to svelte sweetheart on ship' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'take' could be 'r' (abbreviation for 'recipe', Latin for 'take') and 'r' is located in the answer.
'boat' could be 'ss' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain) and 'ss' is found in the answer.
'svelte' could be 'thin' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'thin' is found within the answer.
'sweetheart' could be 'e' (the heart/centre of 'sweet') and 'e' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'wo' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'showing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for worthiness that I've seen is " Estimable quality".)