Royal Navy logistics long predated interwar oilers. Its worldwide system had relied on coal ports and other places where ships could renew essential supplies. During the Napoleonic Wars, supply vessels brought material to warships maintaining blockades at sea. Oil fuel and improved transfer equipment changed the material and pace of the problem, but not the underlying institutional task of sustaining a fleet away from home.
Notable Point · 7:29-8:08
Royal Navy logistics long predated oilers
Coal ports and at-sea supply for Napoleonic blockade forces show that British naval logistics had a much longer history than fast oilers.