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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 93

'An unfortunate accident happened to our second torpedo, for when fired it hung up half out of the tube and broke at the joint between the head and the body, the top body screws breaking but the bottom ones holding, so that the business end, with all the explosive in it, was dangling over the side. I have vivid recollections of the tubes' crew gingerly trying to bear the head off with a boat-hook as it bumped against the side with each roll of the ship. Luckily it soon parted and fell off, again luckily just clearing the starboard propeller. Altogether a most unfortunate incident!'

One of several close calls experienced by H.M.S. Nicator of the 13th Destroyer Flotilla at Jutland, as recounted by Lieutenant M. A. Brind, R.N.; see Jutland 1916 - Death in Grey Waters, by Nigel Steel and Peter Hart.

A Boer War and Great War campaign group of five awarded to Chief Stoker J. F. Ford, Royal Navy, who witnessed enemy fire of the heaviest kind at Jutland in the destroyer H.M.S. Nicator

Unleashed by Beatty at around 4 p.m. on 31st May, the destroyers of the 13th Flotilla made headlong for the enemy at a rate of 30 knots, those of the 2nd Division - under Commander Barry Bingham, V.C. in Nestor - bearing the brunt of 'an extremely warm welcome' from the German battlecruiser line

Queen's South Africa 1899-1902, no clasp (J. F. Ford, Sto., H.M.S. Pearl); 1914-15 Star (291543 J. F. Ford, A. Ch. Sto., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (291543 J. F. Ford, Ch. Sto. R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 1st issue (291543 J. F. Ford, Stoker, P.O., H.M.S. Leander), light contact marks, generally very fine (5)

Joseph Fredrick Ford was born in Devonport, Devon on 16 January 1881 and joined the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in March 1899. His first seagoing appointment was aboard H.M.S. Pearl, from December 1901 until November 1904, in which period he witnessed active service off South Africa (Medal).

Having then been advanced to Stoker Petty Officer in 1910, he was awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in May 1914, whilst serving in the depot ship Leander. Likewise employed at the outbreak of hostilities, he removed to the destroyer Foyle and served in the Dover Patrol until coming ashore to Vivid II as Chief Stoker in March 1915. Then in April 1916, Ford joined the ship's company of the destroyer Nicator.

Jutland

Of Nicator's subsequent part in the battle of Jutland, as a component of the 2nd Division of 13th Flotilla, her 'Jimmy the One', Lieutenant M. A. Brind, R.N., takes up the story:

'When I arrived on the bridge about 3.30 p.m., the battle cruisers were forming in single line ahead and had increased to full speed, and as we were at the tail of the line, we had to go "all out" to take up our screening position ahead. One thought at first that it was rather unkind to make us proceed up the engaged side of the battle cruisers to take up our station, as it was quite clear that as soon as the first shots were fired at extreme range we should stand a very good chance of being hit by any shots falling short. And we weren't kept very long in suspense, because the enemy soon opened fire, but right from the start there seemed to be a remarkable lack of shorts, nearly all shots appearing to either straddle or hit ... practically before the action seemed to have started the Indefatigable blew up just as we passed her - not a very cheering commencement. We had now got about half-way up the line, going just over thirty knots, and both lines of battle cruisers were firing at each other as rapidly as possible, but our ships were being straddled and hit much too often for anyone to be too happy about it.

We had just got abreast of the Princess Royal, the second ship of the line when the Queen Mary, her next astern which we had passed a few minutes before, had her first explosion, and shortly afterwards completely blew up and was enveloped in a huge cloud of smoke and flame. When the smoke cleared there was nothing left to be seen, and for some time everyone on board the Nicator seemed quite stunned with horror at the suddenness of the thing and at the turn which the action seemed to have taken.

By this time we were abreast the Lion which was firing very steadily, and seemed to inspire confidence somehow in spite of the number of times she appeared to be straddled. Suddenly a huge burst of flame shot up from her, amidships, and for one ghastly moment we thought that she had gone the way of the Queen Mary and Indefatigable. However, as soon as the smoke cleared away, we saw all the Lion's remaining turrets fire together, and everyone on board us burst into a cheer.

Then we noticed a signal to the Champion (Ship of Captain (D), 13th Flotilla) flying from the Lion ordering the 13th Flotilla to attack, and very shortly afterwards the Champion hoisted the signal for the 2nd Division to deliver an attack on the enemy battle cruisers. The 2nd division ordinarily consisted of the Nestor, Onslow, Nomad and Nicator, but early on in the day Onslow had been detached to screen the seaplane carrier Engadine, so that there only remained Nestor, Nomad and Nicator in the division. We started our attack in that order at about 4.30 p.m.

We led out from the head of our battle cruiser line steering a south-south-easterly course (the course of the two battle cruisers' lines being approximately south) at a speed of 34 knots, but shortly after the attack started Nomad commenced to drop behind and told us to take station ahead of her, as she could not maintain the pace.

Almost simultaneously with our attack we saw enemy destroyers coming out from the head of the German line, either to deliver a counter-attack or else to beat off our attack. When we had reached a position on the enemy's bow we turned on to our attacking course, roughly north-east and fired our first torpedo at about 9,000 to 10,000 yards range. We were in excellent position and the torpedo, for as far as we could see its track, ran straight and doubtless at least crossed the enemy's line. By this time we were within gun range of the enemy destroyers, of which we could count at least eight. They were approaching at about 30 knots, two to three points off our starboard bow, and the rate at which we were closing each other was about 1,000 yards per minute, so that it was not long before we went into "rapid independent", our maximum rate of fire, and scored a gratifying number of hits. When at about 1,000 yards' range from us the German destroyers turned on to a south-westerly course, a practically parallel and opposite course to ours, and slightly closing.

We noticed that two of them did not turn with the others but remained stopped, one with a distinct list to starboard, whilst the firing of the remainder although very rapid was very wild, and we were not hit at all. They were now passing us at full speed at almost point-blank range, so that we were allowing the maximum deflection on the gun-sights - 60 knots right. This did not last long, as they were soon past us, and they turned to rejoin their battle cruisers, being engaged as they did so by the next division of our flotilla, which were following us up astern; but the Germans had left behind three of their destroyers, the crew of one of which were already taking to the boats. The Nomad astern of us was unfortunately disabled by a hit in her engine-room, and we had to leave her …

All this time we were under an unpleasantly hot fire from the German battle cruisers' secondary armament, and it seemed nothing short of a miracle that we escaped being hit. I put it down unhesitatingly to the way in which the Captain handled the ship, and I think everyone else on board thought that too. His idea was, and it undoubtedly saved us, to chase each salvo - that it to say, when a salvo fell short, he would alter course towards it, so that after the Germans had applied an "up" spotting correction and fired another salvo, instead of hitting us it would go over. Then we would alter to port towards where that salvo fell, and so on. Luckily we had a reserve of speed over Nestor, our next ahead, so we were able to do this salvo dodging without dropping astern of station to any appreciable extent. Throughout the whole action the Captain was leaning coolly against the front of the bridge, smoking his pipe, and giving his orders to the helmsman.

By this time the German battle cruisers had turned 16 points to port. At the time we vaguely thought it was to prevent further attacks from the other divisions following up astern, but we soon realised that it was because they had effected a junction with their battle fleet, so as soon as it was seen that it was no use carrying on and chasing the enemy battle cruisers from astern, Nestor turned back to the west and prepared to rejoin our line.

On the way back we passed Nomad, stopped and apparently helpless, and we asked if we could offer us any assistance but she told us to go on. Now it was for the first time that I realised that the German battle cruisers had come into touch with their battle fleet, because sighting a line of battleships on our port bow, I exclaimed to the captain, "Now we're all right, here is the 5th Battle Squadron."

But the moment of elation did not last long because a closer inspection showed that they were undoubtedly German, and what was more, Nestor was converging to attack them.

Very soon we were again in the thick of a perfectly hair-raising bombardment from their secondary armament. We were engaging a light cruiser at the head of the line with all our guns, the range on the sights being 3,000 yards - Nestor was apparently going to make quite certain of his attack. At this moment, just as our sights were coming on an enemy battleship for our last torpedo, Nestor was hit, and we had to put our helm hard-a-port to prevent ramming him.

Our torpedo gunner made frantic efforts to train the torpedo tube round to keep his sights on, but the ship was swinging so rapidly that he could not do it, and unfortunately the Captain did not realise until afterwards that the torpedo had never been fired. The Nestor, realising that she was out of action, ordered us to rejoin Champion, for apparently our recall had been hoisted for some time, and accordingly we turned and rejoined Champion at full speed. It seemed perfectly extraordinary that, in spite of the tornado of shells falling all around us, we were never hit once except by a few splinters.'

Nestor's captain, Barry Bingham, was awarded the V.C.

Ford, who remained employed in Nicator until October 1919, was pensioned ashore in March 1921; sold together with a copied service record and former auction listing.

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Sold for
£320

Starting price
£170