Told to acquire lots of paper to make classical boat (6)
I believe the answer is:
bireme
'make classical boat' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'told to acquire lots of paper' is the wordplay.
'told' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'to acquire' becomes 'buy' (buying is a kind of acquiring).
'lots of paper' becomes 'reme' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'buy' is a homophone of 'bi'.
'bi'+'reme'='BIREME'
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for bireme that I've seen before include "Rowed boat long ago" , "with two tiers" , "ancient craft" , "Ancient rowed warship" , "Ancient oared warship" .)