World War II Database

This article refers to the entire Zhaohe-class; it is not about an individual vessel.

In an effort to bolster the strength of the Chinese Qing Dynasty Navy, Imperial Regent Prince Chun issued orders to construct three Zhaohe-class (romanized via the Postal Map System as Chao Ho) protected cruisers at three separate shipyards in the west: lead ship Zhaohe by Armstrong-Whitworth at Elswick in England, United Kingdom; Yingrui by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness also in England; and Feihong by New York Shipbuilding in the United States. Although the three ships shared a very similar design, the dimensions varied slightly, with Zhaohe being the largest in size and displacement, Yingrui having slightly different foremast and smokestacks positioning, and Zhaohe having the thickest armor. By the time the two British-built ships were completed, Qing Dynasty had been overthrown by the republic, which took delivery of the ships. A combination of various reasons not limited to the financial instability of a newly formed Chinese nation led to the third ship, Feihong, being sold to Greece instead, receiving the new name Elli. The two Chinese ships, Zhaohe and Yingrui, saw action during the tumultuous decades prior to the Second Sino-Japanese War, and were both sunk by the end of 1937. Greece ship Elli saw action during the 1919-1922 Greco-Turkish War and was sunk by an Italian submarine at Tinos island, Greece in 1940 prior to the Greek entry into the European War.

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