USS Harder (SS-568)

USS Harder (the three distinctive shark-fin domes are the PUFFS sonar).
History
United States
Name:	USS Harder
Builder:	Electric Boat Company
Laid down:	30 June 1950
Launched:	3 December 1951
Commissioned:	19 August 1952
Decommissioned:	31 January 1974
Struck:	20 February 1974
Identification:	SS-568
Fate:	Sold to Italy, 1974
Italy
Name:	Romeo Romei
Commissioned:	18 August 1974
Decommissioned:	31 May 1988
Identification:	S516
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tang-class submarine
Displacement:	2,050 long tons (2,083 t) surfaced 2,700 long tons (2,743 t) submerged
Length:	277 ft 2 in (84.48 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Speed:	15.5 knots (17.8 mph; 28.7 km/h) surfaced 18.3 knots (21.1 mph; 33.9 km/h) submerged
Test depth:	213 m (699 ft)
Complement:	8 officers and 75 men
Armament:	8 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 forward, 2 aft)

USS Harder (SS-568), a Tang-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the harder, a fish of the mullet family found off South Africa.

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 30 June 1950. She was launched on 3 December 1951 sponsored by Kay Logan Cole, the widow of Lieutenant S.M. Logan, executive officer of Harder (SS-257) lost during World War II. Harder was commissioned on 19 August 1952 with Commander R.B. Laning in command.

After shakedown out of Newport, Rhode Island, Harder made a 1000-mile (1600-km) submerged passage from New London, Connecticut, to Nassau, Bahamas, while snorkeling. She then engaged in tests out of New London to evaluate fast attack type submarines.

Harder began fleet operations out of New London in June 1953. Shortly thereafter Harder departed for the British Isles. During this voyage, she experienced mechanical difficulties with her then-experimental Fairbanks type 3 engines. In August 1953, her engines broke down completely off the east coast of Ireland. She was taken under tow by USS Tringa and endured the longest tow in submarine history, 2100 miles (3400 km) across the Atlantic to New London, Connecticut.

During the next several years Harder carried out a schedule of training and readiness operations with ships of the Atlantic Fleet and Allied NATO nations. Operating from the North Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea, she engaged in sonar evaluation tests, supported ASW tactical exercises, and participated in submerged simulated attack operations. In March 1959 she participated in SUBICEX, during which she cruised 280 miles (450 km) beneath the ice packs off Newfoundland, further than any conventionally powered submarine had previously gone.