The 1937 auxiliary act ordered one ship of each needed support type

The Auxiliary Vessel Authorization Act of 1937 approved about 36,050 tons of support shipping for no more than $50 million. It authorized one seaplane tender, one destroyer tender, one minesweeper, one submarine tender, one fleet tug, and one oiler. A more useful peacetime programme would have ordered about forty-five vessels: ten oilers, ten tugs, ten minesweepers, and about five of each tender type. None of those types had been meaningfully restricted by the naval treaties, so the late and limited order reflected budget choices rather than arms-control limits. By 1937, Japan and Italy had left the treaty system and international danger was increasingly visible. A single ship of each type could establish a design for later orders, but it could not support a large two-ocean fleet. Tenders, tugs, minesweepers, and oilers were well suited to peacetime construction because their usefulness did not depend on the exact destroyer or submarine class they later served. The act provided sensible ships in quantities far below the logistical depth the coming war required.