Sailor smooths voyage on board ship bearing European flag (5,3,7)
I believe the answer is:
stars and stripes
'flag' is the definition.
(Stars and Stripes is an example)
'sailor smooths voyage on board ship bearing european' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'sailor' could be 'tar' (slang term for a sailor) and 'tar' is located in the answer.
'smooths' could be 'sands' (sanding is a kind of smoothing) and 'sands' is present in the answer.
'voyage' could be 'trip' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'trip' is present in the answer.
'bearing' could be 'se' (south east, a compass bearing) and 'se' is located in the leftover letters.
A single letter 's' remains 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 stars and stripes that I've seen before include "indications of rank" , "American flier" , "indicators of military rank" , "The US flag" , "Standard" .)