Bombardment of Kagoshima
Tracey joined the Royal Navy in 1852 and served in the Baltic Sea during the Crimean War. He took part in the Bombardment of Kagoshima in 1863 and the Shimonoseki Campaign in 1864 during the Late Tokugawa Shogunate conflicts. British diplomat Ernest Satow, appointed as interpreter to Admiral Kuper on board HMS Euryalus during the Shimonoseki Campaign, noted Tracey's "love of books" and his "wide knowledge of modern languages, acquired by dint of sheer perseverance amid all the nosiy distractions of life on board ship".