Bibby Line

Bibby Line is a UK company concerned with shipping and marine operations.

Bibby Line
TypePrivate
IndustryShipping
Founded1807
HeadquartersLiverpool, United Kingdom
Key people
Jebb Kitchen (MD)
OwnerBibby Line Group Ltd
WebsiteBibby Line homepage
The Danube was a steam and sailing ship built for Bibby Line in 1856 and sold to Leyland Line in 1873

Its parent company, Bibby Line Group Limited, can be traced back to John Bibby who founded the company in 1807. The company along with the group is based in Liverpool.[1]

History
The cargo steamship Derbyshire was built by Harland and Wolff in 1897, survived the First World War and was scrapped in 1931
The Bibby Line passenger ship Oxfordshire, built in 1912, serving as a hospital ship in the Second World War
The cruise ship Fairstar, which was built in 1957 as the Bibby Line troopship Oxfordshire
Bibby Sapphire is a diving support vessel built in 2005

The Bibby Line was founded in 1807 by the first John Bibby (1775–1840). It has operated in most areas of shipping throughout its 200-year history, and claims to be the oldest independently owned deep sea shipping line in the world.

It was one of the first business in the world to fit its entire fleet with radio, by the British based Radio Communication Company.[2]

Along with other British ship owners, it endured hard economic conditions in the 1970s and 1980s, but survived through diversification into floating accommodation. The group diversified in the 1980s into separate divisions, including Bibby Financial Services which was formed in 1982. The parent company is now called Bibby Line Group, and is a £800 million global business, operating in 14 countries, employing 4,000 people in sectors including retail, financial services, distribution, shipping, marine and infrastructure.[3]

Since 2007, Bibby Line Group and its employees have donated over £10 million and thousands of volunteering hours to over 1,000 charitable causes.[4]

Ships

Bibby Line currently has no ships.

Former fleet

Vessels that have previously operated for Bibby Line include:

  • Brixham
  • Derbyshire - Lost on 9 September 1980 during Typhoon Orchid with all 44 hands onboard. Largest British vessel ever lost at sea.
  • Harlington
  • Herefordshire – wrecked on Cardigan Island in 1934 while on the way to be scrapped[5]
  • Hertfordshire
  • John Bibby
  • Kiel
  • Kowloon Bridge
  • Leicestershire – sold, renamed Heraklion and sunk in the Aegean Sea in 1966.
  • Oxfordshire – official number 131454, recorded travelling Liverpool - Marseilles - Port Said - Colombo - Rangoon, departing Liverpool 2 March 1923 [UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960, Liverpool, 2 March 1923].
  • Shropshire
  • Somersetshire[6]
  • Bibby Stockholm.
  • Rmeil
  • Worcestershire[7]
  • Yorkshire – sunk by U-37 in September 1939 with the loss of 58 lives[8]

See also

References
  1. Merchant Navy Career with Bibby
  2. "Bulletin of the British Vintage Wireless Society Vol.23 No.3" (PDF). bvws.org. 1998. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  3. "(Homepage)". Bibby Line Group. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  4. "Social Responsibility". Bibby Line Group. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  5. "Storm of 1934 changed Cardigan Island forever". Western Mail. 30 December 2010.
  6. "HMS Worcestershire (F 29)". uboat.net. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  7. "HMHS Somersetshire". uboat.net. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  8. "Loss of the Yorkshire and the City of Mandalay". Old Mersey Times.
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