Maumee-class oiler

The Maumee class was a group of four fleet oilers built for the United States Navy, in service from the mid-1950s until the mid-1980s. They were the first of the Navy's new supertankers and the first United States Naval Ships, vessels run by civilian crews and given the USNS prefix, with a T added to their hull numbers to show it. The lead ship, Maumee, entered service in December 1956. The class was meant to carry bulk petroleum products such as fuel oil, gasoline and aviation fuel to American forces overseas, and it was not designed to refuel other ships at sea. After Potomac was destroyed by fire and explosions in 1961, the three survivors were reclassified as transport oilers. Yukon, one of the Ingalls-built hulls, was laid down at Pascagoula, Mississippi, on a Maritime Administration tanker design, and the class was 614 feet 6 inches long with a single steam turbine shaft.