Rare mad liar unfortunately in charge of ships (4,7)
I believe the answer is:
rear admiral
'charge of ships' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'rare mad liar unfortunately' is the wordplay.
'unfortunately' indicates anagramming the letters (a bad or unfortunate spelling).
'rare'+'mad'+'liar'='raremadliar'
'raremadliar' with letters rearranged gives 'REAR-ADMIRAL'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rear admiral that I've seen before include "Naval rank above commodore" , "Top brass" , "navy bigwig" , "Naval officer" .)