Cimarron-class oilers as fleet workhorses

Were the Cimarron and Neosho-class oilers true workhorses of the United States Navy?

Yes. Their fuel-delivery role was essential, and major enlargements helped keep the older oilers useful through the Cold War.

Oilers supplied fuel without which fleet operations could not function by the 1930s and the Second World War. The long-serving Cimarrons remained useful as replenishment requirements changed. Their later jumboization enlarged ships with an unmistakably early-twentieth-century appearance into vessels whose size and proportions looked much more modern. Their longevity therefore involved substantial adaptation of the ships supporting the fleet.