Early oil tankers adapted liquid-cargo practice

Did early oil tankers adapt molasses-carrier practice, and how did their speed compare with merchant ships?

Probably for the early designs; ordinary merchant ships could make about eight knots, so eleven knots was adequate while sixteen-knot naval oilers were genuinely fast.

A viewer asks whether the large-tanker model descended from late age-of-sail molasses carriers that pumped out their cargo. The answer cautiously traces some early variants to that practice. A follow-up speed comparison puts ordinary merchant shipping at roughly eight knots, making an eleven-knot tanker adequate rather than genuinely fast. The Royal Navy's sixteen-knot oilers belonged to a different operational category because they could move with faster fleet formations. Inherited commercial technology and relative speed, rather than a single absolute figure, shaped naval definitions of a useful tanker.