Droll doctor first to know where ships are repaired (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
dry dock
'where ships are repaired' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.
'droll doctor first to know' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'doctor' could be 'doc' (synonyms) and 'doc' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dry dock that I've seen before include "Ship repair area" , "naval repair facility" , "Part of a shipyard" , "where a liner may be built" , "Place for hull repairs" .)