Mercenary judge held in ship going to America? (5)
I believe the answer is:
ninja
'mercenary' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'judge held in ship going to america?' is the wordplay.
'judge' becomes 'J' (abbreviation for judge).
'held in' indicates putting letters inside.
'ship going' becomes 'ni' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'to america?' becomes 'NA' (North America, one of the Americas).
'ni'+'na'='nina'
'j' inserted within 'nina' is 'NINJA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ninja that I've seen before include "martial art expert" , "Stealthy warrior" , "Killer" , "Teenage Mutant -- Turtles (TV/film)" , "Japanese stealth fighter" .)