 Rear Admiral Lionel Grant Tufnell, the head of a British naval mission to Greece, advocated purchasing another armored cruiser like "Gerogios Averof", along with several smaller vessels, and allocating funds to modernizing the Greek naval base at Salamis; this proposal was supported by Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who sought to control naval spending in the tight Greek budget projected for 1912.The plan came to nothing, as the Greek government waited for the arrival of British advisers for the Salamis project.In early 1912, the Greek Navy convened a committee that would be in charge of acquiring a new capital ship to counter "Reşadiye", initially conceived as a battlecruiser.