1.The black sea raider:
At the end of the 19th century, when Bulgaria undertook steps to better organize its military structure and for state-of-the-art of all types of troops, the navy in particular sought the cooperation of France in addition to Russia. In 1896, a first French specialist, Paul Moron, was sent to prepare the conditions for the build-up of the Bulgaria's navy on the Black Sea. He had very clear duties: to prepare a longer lasting French naval mission, to order new French ships and supplies, and to train staff for the restructuring of the navy so that it matched the needs of a true sea navy. The French navy mission , led by Paul Pichon, was operational in Bulgaria from 1897 to 1908.
Although the French pushed for a less ambitious program, the Bulgarian authorities longed for a capital ship to lead their navy. As they had just launched the JEANNE D'ARC, the French offered a similar armored cruiser.
Two major obstacles to the project emerged. First the Bulgarians asked for a battleship. Second the Russophilian lobby opposed the acquisition if it wasn't built in the Nikolayev Admiralty shipyards.
A compromise was found in the original design modified with improved protection and heavier weapon fitted in Russia.
The ship was laid down in 1897 and sailed unarmed to the Black Sea in 1900. In the russian shipyards she recieved two 254 mm/45 guns in single turrets and eight 152 mm/45 . He was finally commissioned in 1902 as the flagship of the Bulgarian princely navy. he still was referred to as a battleship by his owners.
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/DviFqAY.png)
A word about the sources and design:
The ship it self has no historical roots. The infos about the real Bulgarian navy showed that ships of this period were mainly purshased from french yards and that france heavily supported the devellopement of the naval forces of the Principalty (The part about French specialist and naval mission is OTL).
The design should be french with alteration showing the still strong tides with Russian Empire.
The base of the design is the Cruiser Jean d'Arc (From Garlicdesign), with 254 mm guns from the battleship Rostisslav (Garlicdesign again), fitted in the Bouvet single turrets (Guess who's?), and 152mm canet from the cruiser Svetlana (no need to say..........).
2.The aegean conterpart:
In 1908, Prince Ferdinand used the struggles among the Great Powers to declare Bulgaria an independent state with himself as Tsar.The Bulgarian state was raised from a principality to a kingdom. Since thirty years bulgarians were seeking options for unification of all Balkan lands with an ethnic Bulgarian majority , lands that had been given to Bulgaria in the Treaty of San Stefano (and seized and given back to the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Berlin). This comprised Western Thrace and a great part of Aegean Macedonia.
The Tsardom planned to gain those teritorries within five years. In this aim the fleet should be prepared to be divided in two equivalent squadrons.
Therefore a new armored cruiser should be purchased to lead the aegean fleet. This time the Russians succeeded in gaining the whole bid. They proposed a modernised design of the previous cruiser. This time the ship was based on the contemporarie armored cruiser Bayan but with the latest 254 mm/50 guns . The french limply protested that the contract (the original ship was french buit and design) specified that all drawings would be turned over to allow for the construction of only two identical ships in St. Petersburg and not for an exportation program.
Russian shipyards were already at full capacity to recover from the desaster of Tsushima, but a clause of the contract specified that in the event of war, if bulgaria remained neutral (not considering it could be engaged on the other side), the ship would be rented to the russian admiralty.
The Sveti Stefan (St-Stephen in reference to the initial treaty ) was ordered in early 1909, laid down within the year, launched in 1910, and completed in late 1911.
![[ img ]](https://i.imgur.com/DSHwf2g.png)
It was quickly sent abroad under the false pretense of a diplomatic tour. The real destination was the naval base of Salamis to join the Greek fleet until an Aegean port would became bulgarian.
He formed a deadly duet with the Averoff during the first balkan war. Crew was forced to scuttled him to avoid capture by their former brothers in arms when the alliances were overthrown during the second Balkan war.
A word about the sources and design:
This one was my firts idea for a Bulgarian capital-ship, then i choosed an older design.
It's basicly the Russian Bayan with heavier main guns. To this purposed i used the turrets designed for the previous ship with a lengthened gun barrel (45 to 50 calibers).