Trader in awful place, seaman reported (10)
I believe the answer is:
wholesaler
'trader' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'awful place seaman reported' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'place' could be 'hole' (I have seen 'Nasty place ' mean 'hole' so perhaps 'place' could also mean 'hole') and 'hole' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for wholesaler that I've seen before include "Supplier to the trade" , "Merchant" , "Retailer's supplier" , "firm that supplies in bulk" , "retailer of large quantities" .)