The formal legal steps leading to the acquisition of United States naval vessels are confusing to many people but are very important to an understanding of the United States Navy's submarine programs. Generally speaking, the Navy cannot acquire a ship until Congress has both authorized the size of the fleet and appropriated funds for the procurement of new vessels. This requires two separate acts of Congress, as a result of which ships have frequently been authorized several years before funds were actually appropriated for their construction, and some authorized ships have never been built at all. Authorization and procurement procedures are usually quite formal in peacetime but more expedient methods are usually followed during wars or national emergencies. In the past, Congress was often very specific in defining the characteristics of particular ships, their cost, and sometimes even their names and where they were to be built.

USS Hardhead (SS-365), named for a fish of the croaker family, was authorized to be built by the United States Congressional Act of 9 July 1942...which stated in part:

"...The authorized composition of the United States Navy in under-age vessels, as established by the Act of March 27, 1934...as amended by the Acts of May 17, 1938...June 14, 1940...July 19, 1940...December 23, 1941...and May 13, 1942...is hereby further increased by one million nine hundred thousand tons of combatant ships,"...Provided, that the foregoing increases in tonnages for each of the three classes of aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers and destroyer escort vessels may be varied downward in the amount of 30 per centum of the total increased tonnage authorized herein, and if so varied downward, the tonnage so decreased may be used to increase the tonnage of any other class of vessel authorized above, or to increase the tonnage of submarines heretofore authorized, so long as the sum of the total increases in tonnages of these classes, including submarines as authorized herein, is not exceeded:...."

USS Hardhead (SS-365) was laid down on "A" Way on 7 July 1943 at the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The submarine was christened by Mrs. E. F. McDonald and launched on 12 December 1943. Commissioning took place on 18 April 1944 with Lieutenant Commander Fitzhugh McMaster in command.

USS Hardhead (SS-365) was a unit of the Electric Boat Company's version of the Balao Class submarine. Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company built submarines from Electric Boat Company plans.

One of the best-kept secrets of World War II was the increase in the operating depth of our submarines, from 300 feet in the Gato Class to 400 feet in the Balao Class. This was accomplished by shifting from mild steel to high-tensile steel and increasing the thickness of the pressure-hull plating, using the weight saved in previous classes by meticulous attention to design details in every area. Naturally, the Balao Class boats became known as the "thick skins"...while the Gato Class and earlier classes were dubbed "thin skins." In outward appearance and internal layout, the heavy-hull boats were practically identical to the earlier type, and many people--including the Japanese--were unaware that there had been any change. Most of the other new features in the Balao design had already been incorporated in the later Gato Class boats as alterations or contract changes, so the Bureau of Ships skipped the usual step of preparing a preliminary design and simply issued a so-called Circular of Requirements setting forth the changes and new test specifications.

Orders were placed for 256 units of this class, but only 119 were completed to the original design, the rest being either cancelled or reordered later in the war. World War II losses totaled nine, the low toll being due to the completion of many units too late in the war to encounter much opposition from the battered Japanese antisubmarine forces. Most of the Balao Class underwent conversion to new configurations after World War II, and made up the bulk of the Navy's active submarine force until nuclear-powered attack boats replaced most of them during the 1960s.

When commissioned, USS Hardhead was 311 feet 9 inches in length overall and had a maximum beam of 27 feet 3 inches. Her standard displacement on the surface was 1,526 tons, her normal displacement on the surface was between 2,010 and 2,075 tons, and her submerged displacement was 2,424 tons. USS Hardhead was designed to safely submerge to 400 feet...her operating depth. She has eight watertight compartments plus a conning tower. The pressure hull plating was 35 to 35.7 pound high tensile steel (approximately 7/8ths of an inch thick).

The designed compliment was for six officers and sixty enlisted men.

Armament consisted of 6 bow and 4 stern 21-inch torpedo tubes. The maximum torpedo load was twenty-four Mark 14 Mod. 3A torpedoes. In place of torpedoes, a maximum of 40 mines could be carried. One 5-inch/25-caliber dual-purpose deck gun was fitted. Antiaircraft guns consisted of one 40-mm, one 20-mm, and two .50-caliber machine guns.

Fuel capacity was 118,000 gallons (rated) of diesel oil, which fueled 4 main General Motors Model 16-278A, 1,600 horsepower diesel engines, and one auxiliary General Motors diesel engine...which turned generators...which made electricity...which turned four General Electric main propulsion motors of 2,740 shaft horsepower... which could drive the boat at 20.25 knots on the surface...and gave her a cruising range on the surface of 11,000 miles at ten knots (rated).

The generators were also utilized to charge 2 Exide 126-cell main storage batteries...which could power the General Electric main propulsion motors...which could drive the boat at 8.75 knots when submerged. Her submerged endurance, at 2 knots, was two days. Her patrol endurance was rated at 75 days. USS Hardhead had a mean draft of 15 feet 3 inches when on the surface in diving trim.

Following shakedown training in Lake Michigan during April of 1944, the submarine entered a floating dry dock at Lockport, Illinois, and was towed to New Orleans, Louisiana...where she arrived on 16 May 1944. USS Hardhead got underway from Algiers, Louisiana, on 22 May and arrived at Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone five days later. There she took part in additional training exercises before her arrival at Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii on 7 July 1944.

USS Hardhead departed on her first war patrol on 27 July 1944 and proceeded to her patrol area off the Philippine Islands. Early on 18 August she detected the Japanese cruiser IJN Natori east of San Bernardino Strait, and closed for a surface attack. The first well directed salvo of torpedoes stopped the cruiser dead in the water; a second salvo sent her to the bottom. During the remainder of her first patrol, USS Hardhead rendered lifeguard services during strikes by fleet aircraft on the Philippines and operated with a reconnaissance line during the Palaus operation. She arrived at Fremantle, Australia, on 26 September 1944.

USS Hardhead's second patrol began as she departed Fremantle on 24 October and set course for the Philippines. While steaming on the surface through the Sulu Sea during October, she discovered a life raft adrift. In it was Commander (later Rear Admiral) Bakutis, fighter squadron commander of Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise, who had been in the water for six days after being shot down during America's smashing victory in the Battle for Leyte Gulf. Operating in a coordinated group with submarines USS Growler and USS Hake, the submarine sighted a large cargo ship with escorts on 8 November. After being driven off in one attack, USS Hardhead aggressively gained an ahead position...then attacked and sank "Manei Maru." It was during this attack that USS Growler was lost. USS Hardhead performed lifeguard duty off Subic Bay in November and on the 25th came upon an escorted merchant ship. She sank a coast defense vessel, damaged the merchantman, and evaded a retaliatory depth charge attack. Soon afterward, the submarine returned to Fremantle, ending another skillful and effective patrol on 5 December 1944.

Putting to sea again on 24 December 1944, USS Hardhead began her third war patrol in the South China Sea. Operating with submarines USS Besugo and USS Blackfin, USS Hardhead damaged several ships before sinking "Nanshin Maru" on 2 February 1945. Following lifeguard duty for the B-29 strikes on Singapore, she returned to Fremantle on 15 February 1945.

USS Hardhead's fourth war patrol included a special mine laying mission. She departed Fremantle on 20 March 1945 and laid mines off French Indochina during the night of 2 April. The submarine then entered the Gulf of Siam, where, after several attacks, she sank cargo ship "Araosan Maru" on 6 April. Following a visit to Subic Bay to reload during the period 11 to 15 April, she patrolled in the South China Sea...but found few contacts. American submarines had by this time reduced Japanese merchant activity to a trinkle. The island nation was doomed. USS Hardhead returned to Fremantle on 16 May 1945.

Sailing from Fremantle on 18 June 1945, USS Hardhead began her fifth war patrol...to be conducted in the Java Sea. She severely damaged a Japanese freighter with her deck gun on 22 June, and during the next day sank four coastal defense craft during an attack on Ambat Roads in company with submarine USS Bullhead. Illness of her Commanding Officer forced USS Hardhead to end her fifth war patrol at Onslow, Australia, on 17 July 1945.

The submarine departed Onslow on her sixth and last war patrol on 18 July 1945...and she headed back into the Java Sea. She forced a Japanese merchant ship to beach on 27 July, but found few targets...so transited to Subic Bay, arriving there on 10 August 1945.

Soon, afterward, the Second World War, in which submarines had played an aggressive and important part, ended...with the signing of the instruments of surrender on board battleship USS Missouri, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan, on 2 September 1945.

USS Hardhead departed Western Pacific waters on 31 August 1945 and transited, via Pearl Harbor, to San Francisco, California... arriving there on 22 September 1945.

USS Hardhead received six battle stars for her services during the Second World War. All six of her patrols were successful war patrols.

USS Hardhead was decommissioned on 10 May 1946 and was placed in the Reserve Fleet at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California.

USS Hardhead was placed in commission in reserve on 6 February 1952, and, upon her arrival at the United States Naval Submarine Base at New London/Groton, Connecticut, for conversion to a "Guppy" submarine, was placed out of commission on 22 May 1952.

USS Hardhead was one of sixteen submarines in the Fiscal Year 1952 Program that provided for conversion of Fleet-Type submarines to GUPPY submarines. GUPPY means Greater Underwater Propulsion Power. The "Y" has no significance. This program was known as the Guppy IIA Program. The modifications included streamlining the superstructure deck and conning tower fairwater and installing a snorkel system. One main engine and the auxiliary diesel engine (the "dinky") were removed. A sonar room was built into space created by the removal of the diesel engines. USS Hardhead received Sargo II batteries with electrolyte agitation, battery cooling, and open tank ventilation. The electrical system was beefed up by doubling the capacity of the AC motor-generators to handle lighting as well as the previous load, and 120-volt direct current for other purposes was provided through rectifiers instead of rheostats. Two 400-cycle motor-generator sets were also added to meet the needs of new electronic equipment. The propellers were of the five-bladed fleet type.

USS Hardhead received her Guppy IIA conversion at the Electric Boat Company's shipyard at Groton, Connecticut. At the completion of her conversion, the submarine was recommissioned...on 24 March 1953.

When recommissioned, the Guppy IIA submarine was 306 feet in length overall; had a maximum beam of 27 feet 4 inches; had a normal displacement of 1,840 tons when on the surface and 2,445 tons when submerged; had accommodations for 8 officers, 5 chief petty officers, and approximately 70 enlisted men; was armed only with 6 bow and 4 stern 21-inch torpedo tubes (all topside guns were gone); could make 18 knots on the surface and 15 knots submerged; and had only three 1,600 horsepower main diesel engines for propulsion...instead of the original four and the dinky.

USS Hardhead (SS-365) joined the United States Atlantic Fleet for training exercises and tactical drills in the years that followed, operating mainly in the Caribbean and off the east coast of the United States. She transited to the Mediterranean on 7 September 1956 to strenghten the United States Sixth Fleet during the Suez crisis.

During July of 1958, USS Hardhead joined Submarine Development Group 2, which was headquartered at the submarine base at New London / Groton, thereby turning her attention from fleet operations to research and testing of equipment and tactical doctrine. She operated off the east coast of the United States and in the North Atlantic Ocean, and, by 1961, had won four consecutive "E" awards for her performance. During this period, USS Hardhead had installed aboard her, and evaluated, a towed communications buoy system.

USS Hardhead first demonstrated, in 1963, the DIMUS (Digital MUlti-beam Steering) sonar system.

USS Hardhead continued through 1967 to perform the vital work of Submarine Development Group 2 of maintaining the technical superiority and readiness of the submarine force and the fleet. She also did her part in the Submarine Force effort to collect intelligence on potential enemies that threatened the United States during the "Cold War."

And so it went.

Finally, on 26 July 1972, USS Hardhead (SS-365) was:

* Decommissioned;

* Struck from the Navy List; and

* Sold, and then transferred, to Greece.

The Greeks renamed HARDHEAD "Papanikolis" and assigned her the hull identification number of "S-114."

Submarine Papanikolis (S-114) faithfully served the Greek nation in their navy until 1993...when she reached the end of her useful service. In 1993 Papanikolis (S-114) was deleted from the Greek Navy's list of vessels and, subsequently, was disposed of.