Clear evidence of what a ship is carrying (8)
I believe the answer is:
manifest
'clear' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'evidence of what a ship is carrying' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for manifest that I've seen before include "Plain - cargo list" , "Evident" , "Obvious; demonstrate" , "Conspicuous; cargo list" , "Document listing a ship's contents for customs purposes" .)