Sailor, northern, quiet about one stain (7)
I believe the answer is:
tarnish
'one stain' is the definition.
(tarnish is a kind of stain)
'sailor northern quiet' is the wordplay.
'sailor' becomes 'tar' (slang term for a sailor).
'northern' becomes 'n' (abbreviation e.g. N. Ireland).
'quiet' becomes 'ish' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'tar'+'n'+'ish'='TARNISH'
'about' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tarnish that I've seen before include "(Of metal) lose lustre" , "Cause to lose lustre, say silver" , "Film" , "Stain or blemish as with silverware" , "Take the shine off" .)