Soldier, perhaps, that carries sailors? (3-2-3)
I believe the answer is:
man-of-war
'soldier perhaps that carries sailors?' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'soldier' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'soldier' could be 'man' (man can mean a soldier) and 'man' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ofwar' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for man-of-war that I've seen before include "Portuguese --, jellyfish" , "A battleship - for a fighter?" , "Armed sailing ship" , "Fighting ship" , "Old naval ship" .)