A series of destroyers had been built over the preceding years, designed for high smooth water speed, with indifferent results, especially poor performance in heavy seas and poor fuel economy. The lesson of these early destroyers was the appreciation of the need for true seakeeping and seagoing abilities. There were few cruisers in the Navy, which was a fleet of battleships and destroyers (no cruisers had been launched since 1908) so destroyers performed scouting missions. A report of October 1915 by Captain W. S. Sims noted that the smaller destroyers used fuel far too quickly, and that war games showed the need for fast vessels with a larger radius of action. As a result, the size of U.S. destroyer classes increased steadily, starting at 450 tons and rising to over 1,000 tons between 1905 and 1916. The increase in destroyer size has never stopped, with some US s now up to 10,800 tons full load, and the s at 14,564 tons full load. The need for high speed, economical cruising, heavy seas performance, and a high fuel capacity saw larger hulls, the inclusion of oil fuel, reduction geared steam turbines with cruising turbines, and increased fuel capacity.