Bibby Line

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

Bibby Line
TypePrivate
Industrytransport
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] Since 2007, Bibby Line Group and its employees have donated over £10 million and thousands of volunteering hours to over 1,000 charitable causes.[2]

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. 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]

In 2002 Sir Derek Bibby, 2nd baronet, and great-great-grandson of the founder and past chairman and president of the firm, was aged 80 and terminally ill with leukaemia.[4] He committed suicide at home on 9 October 2002 by taking the poison aluminium phosphide. Hours later the poison caused his body to emit dangerous fumes that forced the evacuation of Arrowe Park Hospital where his body was being held.[5]

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.

See also

References
  1. Merchant Navy Career with Bibby
  2. "Social Responsibility". Bibby Line Group. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  3. "(Homepage)". Bibby Line Group. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
  4. "Sir Derek Bibby, Bt". The Daily Telegraph. 11 October 2002.
  5. "Millionaire's death sparks poison scare". BBC News. 10 October 2002.
  6. "Storm of 1934 changed Cardigan Island forever". Western Mail. 30 December 2010.
  7. "Loss of the Yorkshire and the City of Mandalay". Old Mersey Times.
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