In October 1779 he was transferred to the Shrewsbury, Captain Mark Robinson, and was present in her when Sir George Rodney defeated the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent on 16 January 1780.
The Pearl was paid off on 14 March 1802, after a commission of upwards of six years, during which time she had taken, destroyed, or recaptured about eighty vessels, privateers and merchantmen and served at the Siege of Porto Ferrajo.
Ballard then spent seven years with the unattractive command of a district of Sea Fencibles until October 1809 when he was appointed to the Sceptre, of 74 guns, and sailed shortly afterwards for the West Indies.
It was here that he flew a commodore's broad pennant, and on 18 December 1809 commanded the squadron which captured the two heavily armed French frigates Loire and Seine, and destroyed the protecting batteries at Anse-la-Barque of Guadeloupe.
Commodore Ballard returned to England with the Sceptre in the following September, and was for the next two years attached to the fleet in the Channel and Bay of Biscay, but without being engaged in any active operations.