Mysterious body of sailor found beneath 500 ships (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
dark star
'mysterious body' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'sailor found beneath 500 ships' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'tar' (slang term for a sailor).
'found beneath' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'500' becomes 'D' (Roman numeral for 500).
'ships' becomes 'arks'.
'd'+'arks'='darks'
'tar' put after 'darks' is 'DARK STAR'.
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for dark star that I've seen is " Carpenter made this".)