[BITList] Bibby Line ships to Bombay and Burma

[John Feltham]

History of Bibby Line Group (Est. 1807) and The Burma Trade

Ever since it was founded, Bibby Line has always been located in
Liverpool. Indeed today its head office is still located there. It has
successfully survived many ups and downs during the 19th and
20th centuries and can today lay claim to being one of the world's
oldest shipping companies still in private ownership.

Early Years:

Bibby Line was founded in 1807 by John Bibby. By the mid 1830s
the Bibby fleet consisted of some 18 vessels mainly bound for
Mediterranean ports, but also sailing for Bombay, and even further
east to Canton. The total tonnage of the Bibby fleet at that time
was something like 5,500 tons. Not a lot by today's standards,
but quite a respectable size for that time.

The ships carried varied cargoes sailing from Liverpool with textiles,
pottery, and manufactured goods of every kind, and bringing back
fruit and wine from the Mediterranean and Portugal; hides from
South America; spices, silk and cotton from India; and from Demerara,
sugar, wood, coffee, cotton, molasses and rum.

The Burma Trade:

Shipping, however, runs in the veins of the Bibbys and in 1880, as
steam became supreme in shipping and Liverpool had taken over
first place from London as Britain's principal port, James Bibby
re-entered the shipping business with two new ships. By coincidence
his nephews Arthur and Herbert Bibby (sons of Thomas Bibby, the
clergyman) had fallen out with the other directors of the Beaver Line
of which they were members at this time and had resigned from the
board. Arthur was looking for another and more independent
opportunity to become involved in shipping management. Both James
and Arthur saw the vast potential in the Burma trade and in March
1888 Bibbys placed their first order with Harland & Wolff since
1870. Two steamers, the Lancashire and Yorkshire, were delivered
as general cargo ships and two years later in 1890 were converted
into passenger ships for the Burma service. With these two vessels
the tradition of naming Bibby vessels after English shire counties
began and still continues today. The one-class only passenger liners
Shropshire and Cheshire followed in 1891, and a further four ships
were ordered from Harland & Wolff by 1897 as troopships for the
Burma service.

The Lancashire left Liverpool for Rangoon in July 1891 on the
first of the Bibby Line's scheduled passenger and cargo services.
Her four masts and tall, pink black-topped funnel, the insignia of t
he Bibby Line, became a familiar sight for successive generations.
She recorded the best time of the run to Rangoon at the time at
23 days and 20 hours.

Bibby Line took on with relish the existing operators on the Burma
run. Bibby's superiority lay in their more modern steamers and soon
the competition was feeling the strain. Services were also started
to Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Here the developing tea and
rubber estates not only generated profitable cargoes, but also further
opportunities for passenger traffic, since most of the estates were
managed by Europeans. This of course ruffled the feathers of the
existing lines already calling at Colombo, including P&O.

Bibby vessels regularly carried rice from Rangoon to Colombo where
it was discharged and replaced by tea. This double freight homewards
was a welcome bonus. Lead, zinc, silver and other ores from the
Burmese mines also began to fill the holds of Bibby steamers.

The passenger service at first was slow but soon the ships began
to take on board more and more passengers. The reliability of
Bibby's twin screw steamers led the Government to approve them
for colonial civil servants travelling to and from the East.  [snip]

http://www.oceanlinermuseum.co.uk/Bibby%20Line%20history.html




ooroo

If you don't hear the knock of opportunity - build a door.

Anon.



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