Vessels, for instance, at sea with no female (10)

'vessels' is the definition.
(vessel can mean a container)

'instance at sea with no female' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'at' could be 'on' (location) and 'on' is present in the answer.
'no' could be 'n' (common abbreviation) and 'n' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'for' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?