Caught fellow on board any old abandoned ship, finding insubstantial stuff (10)
I believe the answer is:
candyfloss
'insubstantial stuff' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how one could define the other.
'caught fellow on board any old abandoned ship' is the wordplay.
'caught' becomes 'c' (cricket abbreviation**).
'fellow' becomes 'f' (abbreviation - of a society etc.).
'on board' indicates putting letters inside.
'abandoned' indicates anagramming the letters.
'ship' becomes 'ss'.
'any'+'old'='anyold'
'anyold' anagrammed gives 'andylo'.
'f' inserted inside 'andylo' is 'andyflo'.
'c'+'andyflo'+'ss'='CANDYFLOSS'
'finding' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for candyfloss that I've seen before include "Light, fluffy confection of spun sugar" , "Spun-sugar confection" , "Fairground's pink confection" .)