A command and the ship's officer who gives it out? (7)
I believe the answer is:
mandate
'a command' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'and the ship's officer who gives it out?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
an anagram of 'and' is 'nda' which is within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
'it' could be 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT') and 'e' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ma' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mandate that I've seen before include "Give authority to" , "Order - charge" , "Official command; commission" , "Authority given to perform certain task" , "directive" .)