Uriel Sebree (February 20, 1848 – August 6, 1922) was a career officer in the United States Navy. He entered the Naval Academy during the Civil War and served until 1910, retiring as a rear admiral. He is best remembered for his two expeditions into the Arctic and for serving as acting governor of American Samoa. He was also commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet.
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1867, Sebree was posted to a number of vessels before being assigned to a rescue mission to find the remaining crew of the missing Polaris expedition in the Navy's first mission to the Arctic. This attempt was only a partial success—the Polaris crew was rescued by a British ship rather than the US Navy—but this led to Sebree's selection eleven years later for a second expedition to the Arctic. That mission to rescue Adolphus Greely and the survivors of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition was a success. Sebree was subsequently appointed as the second acting governor of American Samoa. He served in this position for only a year before returning to the United States. In 1907, he was promoted to rear admiral and given command of the Pathfinder Expedition around the South American coast before being appointed commander of the 2nd Division of the Pacific Fleet and then commander-in-chief of the entire fleet. He retired in 1910 and died in Coronado, California, in 1922. Two geographical features in Alaska—Sebree Peak and Sebree Island—are named for Admiral Sebree.
Early life and career Uriel Sebree was born in Fayette, Missouri, on February 20, 1848, to Judge John Sebree, called "one of the prominent citizens of old Howard County" by the Jefferson County Tribune, (reprinted from the Jefferson County Tribune) and his wife. Uriel was the first of two sons. His brother, Frank Payne Sebree, became a lawyer. Uriel entered the United States Naval Academy on July 23, 1863, during the American Civil War. After his graduation in 1867, his first assignment was on board . Over the next few years Sebree won repeated promotion: to ensign in 1868, master in 1870, and lieutenant in 1871. In 1873 he transferred to the ironclad .
One episode in Sebree's early military history which influenced his later career was his participation in the second Polaris rescue mission. The Polaris expedition was an 1871 exploration of the Arctic that had aimed to reach the North Pole. The expedition was troubled from the start: its leader, Charles Francis Hall, died in mysterious circumstances before the end of their first winter. The following year, the Polaris remained trapped in ice and unable to return home. During a violent storm, the crew was separated into two groups: a small group of explorers was stranded on the now-crippled Polaris and the remainder were marooned on an ice floe. These latter 19 survivors were discovered by chance and rescued by the civilian whaler . Because of the Tigresss success, the Navy chartered the ship, temporarily rechristened her USS Tigress, and used her to launch a rescue attempt to locate the remainder of the crew. For this attempt the ship would be commanded by a group of eight navy officers, led by Captain James A. Greer, although much of the original civilian crew was retained. Lieutenant Sebree was one of the officers chosen for the mission.
This rescue mission was the first official United States military expedition to the Arctic; previous expeditions, including that of the Polaris itself, had been led by civilians. The Tigress sailed from New York on July 14, 1873, traveling first to St. John's, Newfoundland and then to Godhavn and Upernavik in Greenland before following the coast further north. The crew searched North Star Bay, Northumberland Island, and Hartstene Bay before discovering the first sign of the Polaris crew: a camp on Littleton Island where they had wintered, now occupied by Inuit. The missing men, the rescuers were told, had constructed makeshift boats salvaged from their destroyed ship and traveled south. Acting on this clue, the Tigress searched the Baffin Island coast to Cumberland Sound, and then the Greenland coast from Ivigtut to Fiskenæsset and the Davis Strait, before returning to St. John's for fuel. Once there, they learned that the Polaris survivors had been rescued by a British ship and that their search was over. After returning to New York the Tigress was transferred back to civilian use. After this expedition, Sebree was assigned to the screw frigate where he remained for three years. In 1878, he was assigned to work with the United States Coast Survey on board the A. D. Bache. The following year he was given his first two commands: the Silliman and then the Thomas R. Gedney, both ships of the United States Coast Survey. He remained on the latter ship for nearly three years before being assigned to in 1882. In 1883, he was given his first command of a Navy ship, , with orders to sail to Alaska.
Court martial On October 3, 1883, prior to leaving for Alaska, the Pinta collided with the civilian brig Tally Ho off the coast of Nantucket. Sebree was not held directly responsible for the collision, as he was below deck at the time, but it was alleged that he did not do enough to determine whether the other ship was damaged before sailing away. Charges were brought against him in November and in December he was found guilty of "culpable negligence and inefficiency in the performance of his duty". He was sentenced to be suspended from rank and duty for three years with an official reprimand from the Secretary of the Navy. Believing the sentence to be too harsh, Secretary William E. Chandler reduced it to a public reprimand only. Sebree was subsequently transferred to , although not as the ship's commanding officer.
Greely Relief Expedition One month after joining the Powhatan, Sebree was transferred again, this time to serve as the executive officer of for another trip into the Arctic. In 1881, Army Lieutenant Adolphus Greely had left on an expedition to establish a base at Lady Franklin Bay on northern Ellesmere Island (now part of the Canadian territory of Nunavut). Greely was left with provisions for three years but was to expect supply ships in 1882 and 1883. Both attempts to resupply the expedition failed and, with Greely's provisions running low, the Navy prepared an expedition in early 1884 to attempt a resupply or rescue. The expedition was led by Captain Winfield Scott Schley and consisted of lead ship USS Thetis (with Sebree as the executive officer and navigator), , and the borrowed HMS Alert. Many of the officers, including Sebree, were selected for their previous Arctic experience. The Thetis left New York on May 1, 1884, and the group slowly progressed through the ice of Melville Bay, chasing clues and records left by the expedition, to finally discover the survivors of Greely's camp off Cape Sabine on June 22, 1885. Of the 25 members of the expedition, only 6 survived (one more died on the return journey). The expedition sailed first for Upernavik, Greenland, arriving on July 2, 1884, and then made its way back to the United States, landing at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on August 1, 1884. Schley later reported that a delay of just two more days would have been fatal to the remaining six members of the expedition. Sebree and the other members of the relief expedition gained fame from the voyage. Even ten years later, in 1895, a report by The New York Times celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United States Naval Academy listed Sebree as one of the most "famous" graduates, despite his relatively low rank.
After his return from the expedition Sebree taught at the Naval Academy for two years before being transferred to the 13th Lighthouse District, to serve as the lighthouse inspector for Oregon and Washington Territory. While stationed there he was promoted to lieutenant commander in March 1889.
Valparaíso riots
In September 1889 he was made the executive officer of , again under Captain Schley. Both men were still serving aboard the Baltimore when its sailors were attacked in Valparaiso, Chile in October 1891, and gave testimony toward the events during the later investigation.
From September 1892 to July 1893, Sebree served as assistant to the inspector of the 3rd Lighthouse District.
Sebree taught at the Academy from 1893 to 1896. At the end of his time there, he was briefly given command of before being put in command of the Thetis, which was doing survey work off the coast of California. In 1897 he was promoted to commander. During the Spanish–American War, Sebree again commanded the Wheeling in the Pacific for the duration of the war. His assignment was to patrol the coast of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, far from both the Caribbean and Pacific theaters of the war, and he saw no significant action. After the war, he was transferred to the 12th Lighthouse District as an inspector.
American Samoa On October 9, 1901, Sebree was promoted to captain and received orders to travel to American Samoa to take command of and to be commandant of the United States Naval Station Tutuila. Three days later, he was promoted to captain. At this time the commandant of the naval station was considered the acting governor of the territory as Congress had not yet formalized the U.S. Navy's role there. Sebree was the replacement for Commandant Benjamin Franklin Tilley, who had recently had charges brought against him for immorality and drunkenness. While Sebree was in transit to the islands, Tilley was tried and acquitted of the charges against him but the decision to replace him was not changed. Captain Sebree arrived in Samoa and took up his new post on November 27, 1901.
During his administration, Sebree made numerous requests to both Washington and the U.S. Navy that went unanswered. He suggested that the U.S. Congress appoint a committee to visit the islands to create a development plan for the territory, but received no response. Perceived as overly critical by the U.S. Navy, he was relieved of the captaincy of the USS Abarenda to focus solely on his role as Governor. His request for the publicization of his designation as Governor was also ignored. Additionally, he left office without receiving satisfactory responses to his other recommendations, such as establishing a public school system and hiring doctors.Sunia, Fofō Iosefa Fiti (2001). Puputoa: Host of Heroes – A record of the history makers in the First Century of American Samoa, 1900–2000. Suva, Fiji: Oceania Printers. Page 128. ISBN 9829036022.
During his administration, Sebree's government initiated the prohibition of various Samoan traditions deemed "generally considered wrong by civilized nations." Additionally, his administration intervened in conflicts over chiefly titles, typically endorsing candidates who were more cooperative. In a 1902 statement, Governor Sebree remarked, “the natives are naturally very suspicious of white men… They are, in many ways, like children… the Samoan is naturally lazy.”Chapell, David A. (2000). "The Forgotten Mau: Anti-Navy Protest in American Samoa, 1920–1935". Pacific Historical Review. 69 (2): Pages 224 and 228-229. ISSN 0030-8684.
Acting governor