The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 letter word EREBUS
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
E
R
E
B
U
S
More clues leading to the result EREBUS
- A gloomy place as before on top of vehicle
- European detective in underworld location
- English detective’s ship used for polar exploration
- Volcano here, blowing the front off public vehicle
- Before, public transport could be hell
- Darkness in ultimately dire puzzle
- Place of darkness? You wait ages ____ turns up!
- Ending in ignorance, solver finds god in the dark
- Certainly be included, raising hell
- Enigmatist’s debut puzzle divided Heaven and Hell
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "ship used for polar exploration" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case ship used for polar exploration = erebus.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.