Captains lost his head - through smoking these? (7)
I believe the answer is:
kippers
'smoking these?' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.
'captains lost his head' is the wordplay.
'captains' becomes 'skippers' ('skipper' can be a synonym of 'captain').
'lost his head' means to remove the first letter.
'skippers' with its first letter removed is 'KIPPERS'.
'through' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for kippers that I've seen before include "Have they dropped off" , "in bed?" , "Smoked herrings for skipper" , "Food for those that have smoked" , "Smoked fish" .)