![StateLibQld 1 111600 Charles Dickens (ship)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/StateLibQld_1_111600_Charles_Dickens_%28ship%29.jpg)
Bibby Line is a UK company concerned with
shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...
and marine operations.
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
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
. Since 2007, Bibby Line Group and its employees have donated over £10 million and thousands of volunteering hours to over 1,000 charitable causes.
History
![Monks Ferry Drydock, Birkenhead - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Monks_Ferry_Drydock%2C_Birkenhead_-_geograph.org.uk_-_198146.jpg)
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.
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
Bibby Financial Services (BFS) is a multinational corporation that provides financial services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The company is a subsidiary of the Liverpool-based Bibby Line Group, which was founded in 1807 by busin ...
which was formed in 1982. The parent company is now calle
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.
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. He committed suicide at home on 9 October 2002 by taking the poison
aluminium phosphide
Aluminium phosphide is a highly toxic inorganic compound with the chemical formula AlP, used as a wide band gap semiconductor and a fumigant. This colorless solid is generally sold as a grey-green-yellow powder due to the presence of impurities a ...
. Hours later the poison caused his body to emit dangerous fumes that forced the evacuation of
Arrowe Park Hospital
Arrowe Park Hospital is a large, acute hospital, located on a 15-acre (6.1 ha) section of Arrowe Park, close to the village of Upton, Wirral, Merseyside. It is one of three hospitals managed by Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation ...
where his body was being held.
Ships
Bibby Line currently has no ships.
Former fleet
Vessels that have previously operated for Bibby Line include:
*
* - Lost on 9 September 1980 during
Typhoon Orchid with all 44 hands onboard. Largest British vessel ever lost at sea.
*
* – wrecked on
Cardigan Island
Cardigan Island ( cy, Ynys Aberteifi) is an uninhabited island north of Cardigan, Ceredigion, south-west Wales. It reaches a height of a.s.l., and in area.
Lying in the estuary of the River Teifi, it is known for having a small colony of grey ...
in 1934 while on the way to be scrapped
*
*
*
*
* ''Leicestershire'' – sold, renamed and sunk in the
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...
in 1966.
*
* ''Somersetshire''
*
* ''Worcestershire''
* – sunk by in September 1939 with the loss of 58 lives
See also
*
Bibby baronets
The Bibby Baronetcy, of Tarporley in the County Palatine of Chester, is a title in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 July 1959 for Sir Harold Bibby, Chairman of the Bibby Line
Bibby Line is a UK company concerned wi ...
*
Bibby Financial Services
Bibby Financial Services (BFS) is a multinational corporation that provides financial services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The company is a subsidiary of the Liverpool-based Bibby Line Group, which was founded in 1807 by busin ...
*
Costcutter
Costcutter Supermarkets Group is a business based in the United Kingdom and Ireland primarily operating as a symbol group supplier to various independently owned convenience shops and off-licences. It has operations in the United Kingdom, the ...
*
Sir Derek Bibby
References
External links
Bibby Line Group– official website
*{{cite web , url= http://fp.redduster.f9.co.uk/BIBBY.htm , archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20031204165942/http://fp.redduster.f9.co.uk/BIBBY.htm , url-status= dead , archive-date= 2003-12-04 , title=Bibby Line , work=The Red Duster – unofficial history
Companies based in Liverpool
Shipping companies of England
Shipping companies of the United Kingdom
British companies established in 1807
Transport companies established in 1807