He served in the First Schleswig War, and Cape Steen Bille on the King Frederick VI Coast, Greenland was named in his honour by W. A. Graah.

Influenced by his father's role in the defence of Copenhagen in 1807, and the visits of many leading naval figures to his parents’ house, he became a cadet (midshipman) in 1809 at the age of 12, and seven years later a junior lieutenant with an honorary position at the royal court.

On board l’Hermione he was in command of a division of bomb vessels at Cadiz, when the city was captured by the Duke of Angoulême in the Battle of Trocadero in 1823.

[2] In 1849, again as commander of a blockading flotilla in the North Sea, he had some small encounters with armed German steamships and had to forsake the defence of the islands to the west of Jutland until he had some Danish gunboats sent via the Limfjord to flush out the enemy.

In the last year of the war, after the German Bund had agreed a peace and the fighting could be concentrated on the rebels (Schleswig Holsteiners), he was again on the east coast flying his pennant in the steamship Skimer.

Bille's naval career ended at the close of the war's with a strong reputation for seamanship and leadership abilities, although sometimes overstrict to his subordinates.

As Britain and France became embroiled in the Crimean War, Bille ordered some naval preparations in Denmark's fleet – but without parliamentary authority – for which he was brought to impeachment proceedings but found not guilty.

His belief in modernising the fleet, with such unproven things as steam power, rifled naval guns and much else, invited opposition to the great expense – especially from the Liberal Party.

[1] In 1864 Bille, now a vice admiral, travelled to China as a fully accredited representative of the state with powers to ratify the trade treaty with that nation.