Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas (Part I)

The Great War D.S.O. group of five awarded to Captain J. E. A. Mocatta, Royal Navy, who was decorated for his magnificent bravery and skill in command of the destroyer Nicator at Jutland, where he once engaged the enemy at the suicidal range of 600 yards, under ‘a perfectly hair-raising bombardment’, all the while ‘leaning coolly against the front of the bridge, smoking his pipe, and giving orders to his helmsman’

Distinguished Service Order, G.V.R., silver-gilt and enamels, with integral top riband bar; 1914-15 Star (Lieut. J. E. A. Mocatta, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals, with M.I.D. oak leaves (Lt. Commr. J. E. A. Mocatta, R.N.); Russia, Empire, Order of St Stanislas, 3rd Class neck badge with swords, 40mm x 40mm., gold and enamel, manufacturer’s name (probably Edouard) on reverse, ‘56’ gold mark for St. Petersburg 1908-17 on eyelet, further stamp marks on sword hilts, mounted for display, good very fine and better (5) £6,000-£8,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Naval Medals from the Collection of the Late Jason Pilalas.

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R. C. Witte Collection, Dix Noonan Webb, December 2007.

D.S.O. London Gazette 15 September 1916: ‘He supported Commander Bingham of Nestor in his gallant action against destroyers, battle-cruisers and battleships, in the most courageous and effective manner.’

M.I.D. London Gazette 6 July 1916.

Order of St Stanislas, 3rd Class London Gazette 5 June 1917.

Jack Ernest Albert Mocatta was born in Paddington, London in April 1887 and entered the Royal Navy as a Naval Cadet in Britannia in May 1902, and was appointed Midshipman in the Empress of India on the Mediterranean Station in October 1903. Advanced to Lieutenant in October 1909, after surviving the loss of the Gala in a collision in the previous year, he was serving in the destroyer Brisk on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914. As it transpired, he would remain actively employed in destroyers for the remainder of the War, his subsequent pre-Jutland appointments being the Angler (March to September 1915), the Sunflower as C.O. (September 1915 to January 1916), and the Sandfly as C.O. (February to May 1916), in which latter month he removed to the Nicator. And judging by assorted reports on his service record, he was the very epitomy of a destroyer captain - dashing, plucky, skilful and energetic, and blessed with a healthy disregard for minor detail and paperwork.

At Jutland, Mocatta’s Nicator was in the 2nd Division of the 13th Destroyer Flotilla, and the port division of that force was commanded by the equally dashing Harry Bingham, the son of an Anglo-Irish nobleman, in Nestor; the team was completed by Nomad, under Lieutenant-Commander Paul Whitfield. Very shortly the home press would be buzzing with tales of their exploits, not least of the award of the V.C. to Barry Bingham, and, as the following account confirms, no-one lent better support to that gallant officer than Mocatta of the Nicator:

‘At 4.15 the port division, led by Commander the Hon. Barry Bingham in the Nestor, swerved out of line at full speed to attack. Other divisions followed, until, steaming at full speeds of nearly 34 knots, as fast as they could be driven, a dozen destroyers were tearing for the area of “No Man’s Sea” between the opposing squadrons.

It was a chance vouchsafed to few destroyer officers, and then only once in a lifetime. They had started on the most exciting race in the world, a race towards the enemy, a race which had as its prizes honour and glory - possibly death. Almost as soon as our destroyers moved out to attack, 15 enemy destroyers, accompanied by a light-cruiser, the Regensburg, emerged from the head of the German battle-cruisers to deliver an attack upon our battle-cruisers.

The British destroyers steered at full speed for a position on the enemy’s bow whence to fire their torpedoes, their course gradually converging on that of the German flotilla. At 4.40 the Nestor, Commander Bingham, followed by the Nicator, Lieutenant Jack Mocatta, and the Nomad, Lieutenant-Commander Paul Whitfield, swung round to north to fire their torpedoes, and also to beat off the enemy’s destroyer attack. These three ships were followed at intervals by the Petard, Lieutenant-Commander E. C. O. Thomson, and the Turbulent, Lieutenant-Commander Dudley Stuart.

Immediately the Nestor, Nicator and Nomad turned in to attack the enemy’s light-cruisers, the German flotilla turned to an appropriately parallel course. Almost at once the destroyer fight started at a range of about 9,000 yards. Both sides fired rapidly as the distance decreased, and to onlookers the opposing flotillas were only seen as lean black shapes pouring smoke from their funnels as, with their guns blazing, they tore at full speed through a welter of shell-splashes.

At about 4.45 the Nomad was hit in the engine-room, the explosion killing or wounding many men and destroying steam-pipes. At full speed, the Nestor and Nicator, followed at an interval by the Petard and Turbulent, and supported by the other destroyers, engaged the enemy flotilla at a distance which eventually dropped to about 600 yards - almost point-blank range. The Germans were outgunned, and in a very few minutes their attack was beaten off. Leaving two sinking ships behind them, and with several more hit and damaged, they made at full speed for the comparative safety at the head and tail of their battle-cruisers, closely pursued by our craft. The enemy had actually fired 12 torpedoes at the British battle-cruisers, though, thanks to our destroyers onslaught, they had been unable to approach within a range that gave them much chance of hitting.

The Nestor and Nicator each fired two torpedoes at the enemy’s battle-cruiser line at a range of about 5,000 yards, while continuing to engage the German destroyers. The torpedoes missed, for, seeing the tell-tale splashes as they left their tubes, the German Admiral turned his ships away. The Petard, firing three torpedoes later at a range of about 7,000 yards, was luckier, for one of hers hit the Seydlitz, tore a hole 13 by 39 feet under her armoured belt, and put one heavy gun out of action.

Swinging round to the eastward, followed by the solitary Nicator, the Nestor found herself rapidly approaching the head of the enemy battle-cruiser line, all four ships of which were soon pouring in a withering fire from their secondary armaments. The sea vomited splashes and spray fountains; but, pressing home his attack, Bingham fired his third torpedo at a range of about 3,500 yards. Throughout this period both the Nestor and Nicator were escaping destruction by a few inches, for the shell was falling all round them. According to one of Nicator’s officers, that ship avoided being hit by altering course towards each salvo as it fell, thereby confusing the enemy’s spotting corrections. “Throughout the whole action,” says the same officer, “the captain [Mocatta] was leaning coolly against the front of the bridge smoking his pipe, and giving orders to the helmsman.”

His work done, Bingham still followed by the faithful Nicator, swung round through 180 degrees and made off at full speed to the westward to rejoin the British battle-cruisers, which, at 4.40, having sighted the approaching High Seas Fleet, had altered course to the northward.

Here there occurs a slight discrepancy between the official reports of the Nestor and Nicator. Mocatta states that during the run back both ships were subjected to a very heavy fire at a range of about 3,000 yards from the leading battleships of the High Seas Fleet. Bingham says nothing of the battle-fleet, but mentions a light-cruiser, the Regensburg, which emerged from the head of the German battle-cruiser line and opened a tornado of fire.

The result, whoever inflicted it, was the same, for just before 5 o’clock the Nestor received direct hits which put two of her boilers completely out of action and shrouded the ship in a dense cloud of steam. She managed to stagger on for four miles at a gradually diminishing speed, until, at 5.30, she came to a complete standstill within a couple of miles of the sinking Nomad, her subdivisional mate.

The Nicator, which narrowly escaped colliding with the Nestor when she was hit, was ordered to go on and rejoin the Champion, which had been flying the destroyer’s recall for some time. In spite of the deluge of fire through which she had passed, she had been hit by nothing worse than a few splinters.’

Moccata was mentioned in despatches, awarded the D.S.O. and the Russian Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd Class, and remained in command of the Nicator until September 1917, when he removed to the Tower, and was advanced to Lieutenant-Commander in the following month. His final wartime command was the Whitely, from September 1918, and he was placed on the Retired List in April 1920.

Having then been appointed a Commander (Retired) in April 1927, he was recalled in September 1939 and remained actively employed as C.O. of assorted Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship (D.E.M.S.) establishments until his release, in the rank of Captain, in October 1945. He died in 1973, aged 85 years.

Sold with original D.S.O. warrant, dated 15 September 1916, and M.I.D. certificate, dated 6 July 1916.