Yankee law-breaker's vessel? (4)
I believe the answer is:
yawl
'vessel?' is the definition.
(yawl is a kind of vessel)
'yankee law-breaker's' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'yankee' could be 'y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.) and 'y' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'law' is 'awl' which is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for yawl that I've seen before include "Two-masted sailing vessel" , "A two-master" , "Sailing-ship" , "Ships small boat" , "boat? The reverse" .)