The ''Chao Ho'' class () was a

class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...

of protected cruisers built for the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

from 1910–1913. The class would later serve the Republic of China Navy and the

Royal Hellenic Navy The Hellenic Navy (HN; el, Πολεμικό Ναυτικό, Polemikó Naftikó, War Navy, abbreviated ΠΝ) is the Navy, naval force of Greece, part of the Hellenic Armed Forces. The modern Greek navy historically hails from the naval forces of ...

through the

National Protection War The National Protection War (), also known as the Anti-Monarchy War, was a civil war that took place in China between 1915 and 1916. Only three years earlier, the last Chinese dynasty, the Qing dynasty, had been overthrown and the Republic of C ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the Greco-Turkish War, the Second Zhili–Fengtian War, the

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1910, Imperial regent Zaifeng, Prince Chun commissioned a 7-year plan for the modernization of the Qing Dynasty's Imperial Chinese Navy. Third-rank Prince Zaixun and Admiral Sa Zhenbing were sent on a whirlwind fact-finding tour of the West, starting in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

in October 1909 (where Admiral Sa was awarded the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

) and continuing to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 1910. The Naval Commission's findings suggested that a Ministry of the Navy be created, and on 4 December 1910 the Naval Commission was made into the Ministry of the Navy with Prince Zaixun as its first minister. The commission also suggested that the various Chinese navies be unified and divided into three separate fleets, Southern, Central and Northern. Part of the ambitious modernization program was the commissioning of new state-of-the-art ships for the Navy,

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

s, torpedo boats and

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s. The contract for the building of three ''Chao Ho''-class training cruisers were awarded to two British and one American ship building yards in 1910. The lead ship of the class was which was laid down in the UK at the Armstrong Whitworth naval yard in Elswick on 7 November 1910 and commissioned a year later. () was launched on 13 July 1911 from

Vickers Limited Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entir ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

. The last of the class was ''Fei Hong'' () which was laid down on 12 May 1912 by the

New York Shipbuilding Corporation The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United ...

and completed in November 1913. By this time China had undergone a wide-scale

revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

, which had forced the abdication of Emperor Puyi, the collapse of the Qing government and the establishment of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. The fledgling Chinese republic was uninterested in being saddled with the Manchu Qing dynasty's debts and dealings, so on 14 May 1914, ''Fēi Hóng'', which had not yet been paid for or delivered, was sold to the

Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label=Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where ...

and renamed ''Elli'' (Greek: Κ/Δ Έλλη) after the decisive Battle of Elli of 1912, by the New York Shipbuilding Company. The ''Chao Ho''-class cruisers were unusual in that all three semi-

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s were built in different ship building yards, and although all three ships were built to the same basic design, they varied in size, displacement, armour and boiler types, and all three ships carried varied assortments of guns (as opposed to uniform main armament). These were done to increase the educational effectiveness of the ships, in order to familiarize their crews with various boiler and weapons systems. The class was notable for being the first Chinese ships to use Parson steam turbines. While the primary fuel for the ''Chao Ho'' class remained coal, these were the first Chinese ships to carry oil for fuel as well.Gray, Randall. ''Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921''. Conway Maritime Press, 1985, p. 396-397.

Ships

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20120717024944/http://www.beiyang.org/bybq/qingmo.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20061117053458/http://navy.mnd.gov.tw/English/index.aspx {{Chao Ho class cruisers Cruiser classes