Starting his career in 1841 as a midshipman, Luce rose through the ranks to become a rear admiral (1886). From the beginning of his naval life, he wished to improve the education of seamen; to that end he published Seamanship (1863), which became a standard text.

Luce gradually became convinced of the need for postgraduate training for naval officers. After years of lobbying, his idea was realized in the establishment in 1884 of the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Luce, then a commodore, was appointed president of the college, a post he retained until his retirement in 1889. He continued as a special adviser, however, until 1910. It was through Luce's sponsorship that Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan (Mahan, Alfred Thayer), in his lectures at the Naval War College, expounded the theories of sea power that gained worldwide recognition in the 1890s and early 1900s. Other countries, including Japan, England, and Germany, later founded similar institutions.