Audibly destroy the French ship, being foolhardy (8)
I believe the answer is:
reckless
'being foolhardy' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'audibly destroy the french ship' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'ship' could be 'ss' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain) and 'ss' is found in the answer.
'the french' could be 'le' ('the' in French) and 'le' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'reck' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reckless that I've seen before include "Dangerously rash" , "not responsible" , "Irresponsible" , "Lacking caution, wildly impulsive" , "Imprudent, rash" .)