RECORDS OF BIBBY LINE

Contents

B/BIBBY/1/1 - 7 Operational 1812 - 1977

B/BIBBY/2/1 - 2 Fleet 1909 - 1987

B/BIBBY/3/1 - 2 Staff 1860 - 1980

B/BIBBY/4/1 - 29 Publicity (and Information Booklets) 1921 - 1991

B/BIBBY/5/1 - 13 Miscellaneous Articles (including History) 1558 - 1990

B/BIBBY/6/1 - 16 Photographs 1959 - 1974

B/BIBBY/7/1 - 4 Published Works 1925 - 1988

This collection was deposited in 1984 and 1991.

Acc No: MMM.1991.117

John Bibby (1775-1840) was born on a Lancashire farm, and as the fourth of five sons set out in his early 20s to make his fortune in Liverpool. He began his career by working for James Halton, an iron merchant who also forged ship's anchors and chains. Some years later John Bibby set himself up as a shipbroker in partnership with William Hall. By the time he was 31, in 1805, John Bibby was able to buy a share in four small sailing ships, starting with the Margaret, a 69-foot galliot. However, in that same year his partnership with Hall was dissolved and Bibby set himself up as a broker under the title of John Bibby & Co. In 1807 in partnership with John Highfield, he embarked upon a new venture, advertising regular packet sailings between Parkgate and Dublin. It was this event that has been taken to mark the birth of the present day Bibby Line.

By 1821 (the end of the partnership) they had vessels sailing to the Mediterranean and South America. However, they remained associated into the 1830s. John Bibby died in 1840 after being attacked by footpads who stole his pocket watch. The control of the company was passed to one of his four sons, James J. Bibby. In 1850 they expanded their Mediterranean and Black Sea interests by buying two steamers and by 1865 their fleet had increased to twenty-three. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 severely affected their business and Frederick Leyland, their general manager, failed to persuade the family partners to diversify into the Atlantic. Eventually, he bought them out in 1873 (See also DX/1471 "Sketch of the Commercial Life of Henry Stripe", a clerk at John Bibby & Co., who describes Frederick Leyland's rise to ownership.). In 1889 the Bibby family revived its shipowning interests with a successful passenger-cargo service to Burma. From 1893 it also began to carry British troops to overseas postings which remained a Bibby staple until 1962. After the Second World War the decline of the Far East trade led the line into new ventures, notably membership of the Seabridge Shipping Ltd. consortium. The Britain Steamship Co., Ltd., which originated in the shipping interests of the Watts family of Northumberland in 1883, was also a member of Seabridge, and was taken over by Bibby in 1968. The Burma service ended in 1971 and the company moved to new areas of shipowning including bulkers, gas tankers and accommodation barges. It still has its head office in Liverpool where most of its management records are held. The Museum holds models of the Staffordshire (1929) and Oxfordshire (1955).