Merchant ship officers in charge of merchandise, with courage press for changes (12)
I believe the answer is:
supercargoes
'merchant ship officers' is the definition.
(a supercargo supervises a ship's cargo)
'with courage press for changes' is the wordplay.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'for changes' is an anagram indicator (I've seen 'for change' mean this (I've seen this in other clues)).
'courage' next to 'press' is 'couragepress'.
'couragepress' is an anagram of 'SUPERCARGOES'.
'in charge of merchandise' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for supercargoes that I've seen is " Commercial officers on board".)