Ship in the drink recalled as something useful (5)
I believe the answer is:
asset
'something useful' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'ship in the drink recalled' is the wordplay.
'ship' becomes 'ss'.
'in the' indicates putting letters inside.
'drink' becomes 'tea' (tea is a kind of drink**).
'recalled' is a reversal indicator.
'ss' put within 'tea' is 'tessa'.
'tessa' back-to-front is 'ASSET'.
'as' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for asset that I've seen before include "Item of property" , "one liable to be stripped?" , "Strong point" , "Valuable person" , "Something useful" .)