Craft or ancient vessel (9)
I believe the answer is:
container
'vessel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'craft or ancient' is the wordplay.
'craft' indicates an anagram (letters must be crafted into a new form).
'or'+'ancient'='orancient'
'orancient' is an anagram of 'CONTAINER'.
(Other definitions for container that I've seen before include "Something that holds" , "Eg, box" , "storage" , "Type of ship" , "Sort of ship" .)