A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hoar, Balch Nun
HOAR. (Lieutenant, 1803. f-p., 15; h-p., 36.)
Balch Nun Hoar entered the Navy, in Oct. 1796, as A.B., on board the Prince 98, Capt. Thos. Larcom. In that ship, which afterwards bore the flag of Sir Roger Curtis, he continued to serve as Midshipman on the Channel, North Sea, and Irish stations, until 1798, when he removed to the Incendiary 14, Capt. Geo. Barker, and sailed for the Mediterranean. In 1799 he rejoined Sir Roger Curtis at the Cape of Good Hope on board the Lancaster 64, from which vessel he was promoted, 6 Jan. 1803, to an Acting-Lieutenancy in the Tremendous 74, Capt. John Osborn – an appointment officially sanctioned on 15 of the following April. On 21 April, 1806, while on her passage with a homeward-bound convoy from India, where she had been employed for upwards of three years, the latter ship pursued and fought a close action of an hour and a quarter with the French 40-gun frigate Cannonière, who in the end effected her escape, with a loss, besides being greatly damaged, of 7 men killed and 25 wounded. Mr. Hoar’s appointments, after he left the Tremendous, were – 9 Aug. 1806, to the Illustrious 74, Capt. Wm. Shield and Wm. Robt. Broughton, in the Mediterranean – 8 Aug. 1808, to the Pelorus sloop, Capt. Hon. Jas. Wm. King – 7 April, 1809, to the Diomede 50, Capt. Hugh Cook, for passage to the East Indies – 11 July, 1809, to the Lion 64, Capt. Henry Heathcote, at St. Helena – 18 May, 1810, to the Leda 36, Capt. Geo. Sayer, under whom he witnessed the earlier operations connected with the reduction of Java – and lastly, 17 May, 1813, after one-and-twenty months of half-pay, to the Grasshopper sloop, Capt. Henry Robt. Battersby, again on the Mediterranean station, whence he invalided in Jan. 1814.
For many years prior to 1838 Lieut. Hoar was one of the Naval Knights of Windsor. Since 28 June in that year he has been on the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital.