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