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 in October 1909 (where Admiral Sa was awarded the Order of St Michael and St George) and continuing to the United States and Japan 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, battleships, cruisers, torpedo boats and submarines. 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 at Barrow-in-Furness. The last of the class was "Fei Hong" () which was laid down on 12 May 1912 by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation and completed in November 1913. By this time China had undergone a wide-scale revolution, which had forced the abdication of Emperor Puyi, the collapse of the Qing government and the establishment of the Republic of China. 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 and renamed "Elli" (Greek: Κ/Δ Έλλη) after the decisive Battle of Elli of 1912, by the New York Shipbuilding Company.