[1] Mocenigo dedicated his life to the craft of arms, lived on the sea to counter Turkish power, and not without moments of heroism: for example in 1650 in Nixia when, although wounded by an arrow in his left arm and mutilated of a finger by a musket shot, he continued to fight fiercely.

On 21 June 1655 he defeated the Ottoman fleet before the Dardanelles, while in 1656 he again distinguished himself in an attempt of assisting Crete.

A cannon shot from a Turkish coastal battery caused a mast to fall which hit him, killing him.

[4][1] He was one of the few Venetian naval officers to have participated, albeit to varying degrees, in all expeditions to the Dardanelles.

With his death the battle was lost, the Venetian blockade broken, causing a rift among Venice, Malta and the Papal States, while giving the Turks time to prepare a successful counter-offensive.