The ship-bound sailor may take direction from them (5)
I believe the answer is:
stars
'take direction from them' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'the ship-bound sailor' is the wordplay.
'the ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'bound' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'sailor' becomes 'tar' (slang term for a sailor).
'ss' placed around 'tar' is 'STARS'.
'may' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stars that I've seen before include "Heavenly bodies" , "''What is the ...? What is the ...? '' (Juno and the Paycock)" , "Celebs - constellation" , "Horoscope (colloq.)" , "Leading actors" .)