Mythical animal hunted by Poles aboard ship (5)
I believe the answer is:
snark
'mythical animal hunted' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.
'by poles aboard ship' is the wordplay.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'poles' becomes 'SN' (North and South poles).
'aboard ship' becomes 'ark' (I've seen this in other clues. I am not sure about the 'aboard' bit.).
'sn' next to 'ark' is 'SNARK'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for snark that I've seen before include "One hunted by sailors" , "Creature charmed with smiles and soap" , "creature fitly hunted" , "Hunt creature (Carroll)" , "Carroll's hunted animal" .)