Crossword Genius

Supports stern on ship carrying tons (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

backrests

'supports' is the definition.
(backrest is a kind of support)

'stern on ship carrying tons' is the wordplay.
'stern' becomes 'back' (stern is the back of a boat).
'on' becomes 're' (regarding).
'ship' becomes 'SS' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'carrying' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'tons' becomes 't'.
'ss' enclosing 't' is 'sts'.
'back'+'re'+'sts'='BACKRESTS'

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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