Vessel recently located, complete, united leaderless country (9)
I believe the answer is:
endurance
'vessel recently located' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'complete united leaderless country' is the wordplay.
'complete' becomes 'end' (complete means to finish or end).
'united' becomes 'U' (abbreviation as in Man U for Manchester United).
'leaderless country' becomes 'rance' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'end'+'u'+'rance'='ENDURANCE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for endurance that I've seen before include "Staying power" , "Ill-fated vessel" , "Patient toleration" , "Surviving" , "ship bound for the Antarctic" .)