LEICESTERSHIRE
(1) was built in 1909 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 8059grt, a length of 467ft 2in, a beam of 54ft
2in and a service speed of 15 knots. Launched on 3rd June 1909
and delivered on 11th September she made her maiden voyage from
Birkenhead to Rangoon. In August 1914 she was requisitioned
for trooping for the Indian Expeditionary Force and carried
Indian and Burmese troops to the Persian Gulf before reverting
to Bibby services in the following November. She was taken over
under the Liner Requisition Scheme in March 1917 and served
on the North Atlantic although two voyages were made for Bibby's
during that time. In 1918 she carried troops to North Russia
to assist the White Russians before repatriating Australian
soldiers. She was refurbished by her builders in 1919 during
which time she was converted to oil burning. As with all conversions
to oil the coal bunker forward of the funnel was converted into
cargo space and derrick posts fitted to serve the hatch. In
1930 she was sold to the British National Exhibition Ship Co.,
renamed British Exhibitor, and refurbished for her new role
by Cammell Laird & Co. of Birkenhead at a cost of £100,000.
When the slump hit her owners went into voluntary liquidation
in February 1932 and she was laid up at Southampton for a year.
On 28th September 1933 she was purchased by the Cairo based
Egyptian Company for Transport & Navigation and, as the
Zam Zam, was deployed on their Egypt to Jeddah service. In May
1934 she was transferred to Societe Misr de Navigation of Alexandria
without a change of name. Laid up at Suez in October 1939 she
resumed service on the Alexandria - Cape Town - New York service
in February 1941. On 21st March 1941 she left New York bound
for Recife where she embarked 202 passengers and sailed on 9th
April. At 0545 on 17th April, although a neutral, she was hit
by 55 shells fired by the German raider Atlantis in ten minutes
during which around 24 lives were lost. Seven hours later she
was sunk with three bombs along the waterline. The survivors
were taken aboard the Dresden which proceeded to St. Jean de
Luz. It later transpired that the commander of the Atlantis,
Bernhard Rogge, recognised her as a Bibby ship and decided that
she was disguised as a troopship. (Photo: Bibby Line Group)
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
(1) was built in 1910 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 8124grt, a length of 467ft 2in, a beam of 54ft
2in and a service speed of 15 knots. Sister of the Leicestershire
she was launched on 7th July 1910 and completed on 22nd October.
On 11th July 1913 she represented Bibby's at the Mersey Pageant.
In August 1914 she was requisitioned for trooping duties and
in December 1915 was converted into the Armed Merchant Cruiser
HMS Gloucestershire and served with the 10th Cruiser Squadron.
She was deployed on 'E' Patrol between Shetland and Iceland
with Royal Mail Line's Ebro. In February 1916 she came under
the control of the Minister of Blockade, Lord Robert Cecil.
Decommissioned in 1917 she returned to trooping and on 2nd February
1936 arrived at Pembroke Dock where she was broken up by Thos.
W. Ward. (Photo: Bibby Line Group)
OXFORDSHIRE
(1) was built in 1912 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 8648grt, a length of 474ft 7in, a beam of 55ft
4in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Launched on 15th June
1912 and completed on 17th September she was the company's last
ship built with a counter stern. On 2nd August 1914 she was
the first ship to be requisitioned for war service two days
prior to the outbreak. En-route from Liverpool to London she
was off the Isle of Wight and was ordered into Tilbury where
she was converted into Naval Hospital Ship No.1 with 562 beds.
Commissioned on 11th August she was sent to Scapa Flow as a
base ship on 25th September but proved to be too large for the
needs at the time and subsequently moved to the English Channel
to undertake army hospital work. In April 1915 she was deployed
as the base hospital ship at Mudros and was present during the
ANZAC withdrawal at the Dardenelles, bringing off the wounded
in her own boats. The victorious Turks respected the red cross
and did not fire on them. She served in the Persian Gulf and
German East Africa during December 1916 and in 1918 as a shuttle
hospital ship in the English Channel. Decommissioned on 24th
March 1919 she had made 235 voyages, steamed 172,000 miles without
a single breakdown and carried 50,000 wounded, the highest of
any hospital ship in the war. She was refurbished and converted
to oil burning by her builder in 1920 and resumed commercial
services. On 3rd September 1939 she was requisitioned, once
again, for war time service and converted into Hospital Ship
No. 6 with 500 beds at the Royal Albert Dock in London. Commissioned
on 24th September she left London on 11th November bound for
Freetown with 98 medical staff and 177 crew where she served
as the base hospital ship. In September 1942 she was redeployed
in the Mediterranean. After a refit on the Clyde in 1944 she
was sent to the Adriatic where the Army's Anglia had been damaged
by mines and on 29th October was herself damaged by a bomb near
miss during a voyage between Ancona and Bari. In November of
that year she was sent to the Far East where she served the
Admiralty Islands/Philippines and Australia. At one point she
was loaned to the U.S. 7th Fleet for use during the taking of
Okinawa. After the defeat of Japan in 1945 she was used to repatriate
the wounded from Hong Kong and in May 1946 became an Army hospital
ship to bring the sick home from the near and Far East. She
also repatriated Indian troops from Basra to Bombay as well
as making four North Atlantic crossings with refugees. In 1948
she arrived home with troops from Palestine and , on 19th July,
was decommissioned at Southampton after carrying 22,321 casualties
during the war, again the highest of any hospital ship. On 8th
September of that year she made one one more voyage on charter
to Jeddah with pilgrims before she was reconditioned by Harland
& Wolff at Liverpool. In April 1949 she made the first sailing
for the International Refugee Organisation to Australia with
emigrants and in 1950 reverted to trooping duties between Trieste
and Port Said. She finished trooping in February 1951 and on
13th April sailed from Liverpool as the Safina-el-Arab having
been sold to the Pan-Islamic Steamship Co. of Karachi, their
first passenger ship. Deployed on the Karachi - Jeddah Pilgrim
service between June and October she spent the remainder of
the year operating between Karachi and Chittagong. After 46
years of impeccable service she was broken up at Karachi in
1858. (Photo: Bibby Line Group)
LANCASHIRE
(2) was built in 1914 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 9542grt, a length of 482ft 4in, a beam of 57ft
4in and a service speed of 15 knots. Laid down in August 1914
her construction was delayed by the war and she wasn't launched
until 17th January 1917. She was completed in the following
July, albeit in austere style, and sailed from Birkenhead to
Rangoon in the August under the Liner Requisition Scheme. In
November 1918 she commenced repatriating French prisoners of
war and later Belgian refugees. Released from the Liner Requisition
Scheme on 13th December 1918, in January 1919 she was deployed
on trooping duties firstly from Antwerp and Plymouth to Australia
and then from the United Kingdom to the U. S. A. In January
of that year she grounded at Steenbank in Belgium and was refloated
the next day. She was released back to Bibby's in 1920 and whilst
waiting to return to her builders in Belfast was placed on the
Birkenhead to Rangoon service. Finished to Bibby standards and
converted to oil burning during 1921 she then returned to troopship
duties in the company livery. In 1923 she had a fire in her
cargo when at Tilbury and then in 1924 she had a fire in her
cargo of rice meal when she was approaching Marseilles. The
fire was extinguished after 100 tons of rice was dumped overboard.
On 28th April 1930 work was started at Camnmell Laird &
Co. at Birkenhead to convert her into a permanent troopship
to replace Ellerman's City of Marseilles. Emerging with a white
troopship livery she sailed from Southampton on 23rd December
1931 carrying the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. To
delay her until after Christmas would have cost £400 per
day but, to make amends, a full festive programme took place
off the coast of Portugal. In November 1939 she was the commodore
ship in a convoy which included the Devonshire and five British
India ships sailing between Bombay and Marseilles with the first
contingent of the Indian Expeditionary Force. On 'D' Day, 6th/7th
June 1944, she acted as commodore ship for convoy ETP 1and sailed
from the Thames to Juno Beach in Normandy in line ahead with
the Cheshire, Worcestershire and Devonshire. In 1945 she was
converted into a depot and store ship for the Pacific Fleet
Train and in April of that year sailed from Liverpool with 500
technicians bound for Hong Kong where the engineers were used
to restore public services and to get the dockyard operating.
She then assisted with the repatriation of sick troops. In 1946
she was refurbished by Harland & Wolff at Govan into a peacetime
troopship and trooped continuously to Cyprus, India and the
Far East for the next ten years. In 1946 she was replaced by
the Oxfordshire (2) and was broken up by Thos. W. ward at Barrow-in-Furness
in the February. (From a painting by James S Mann)
YORKSHIRE
(2) was built in 1920 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 10184grt, a length of 482ft 5in, a beam of 58ft
4in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. She was built as a wartime
replacement in the quickest possible time and equipped with
engines that were immediately available. Consequently, she was
the odd ship in a fleet of reciprocating engines and during
her trials experienced gearing problems. However, she was the
company's first ship to exceed 10,000grt. On 17th September
1939 she became Bibby's first World War 2 casualty. She was
proceeding in convoy from Gibraltar to Liverpool when, at 0836
and as commodore ship, she reported that they were resisting
an attack from a submarine which then proceeded to submerge
and shadow the convoy. At 1643 she was torpedoed by U-37 off
the coast of France with the loss of 33 passengers and 25 crew
members. The US steamship Independence Hall rescued 118 passengers
and 160 crew and the submarine surfaced and, in English, thanked
the American ship, which was still neutral, for rescuing the
survivors. Ellerman Lines City of Mandalay was lost during the
same attack. (Photo: Bibby Line Group)
DORSETSHIRE
(1) was built in 1920 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 7450grt, a length of 450ft 4in, a beam of 57ft
4in and a service speed of 12 knots. One of a pair she was designed
with higher than normal 'tween deck clearance so that she could
be converted into a troopship if required. When launched on
22nd April 1920 she was the largest motorship at the time and
was completed as a tin ore carrying cargo ship. However, before
completion the ore which was mined at Mamtu and Mawchi in Burma
began to be refined locally so she was actually deployed as
a general cargo ship operating between the UK- and Burma for
Bibby Line and between the UK and India on charter to T &
J Brocklebank. In 1927 she was converted into a permanent troopship
by Vickers at Barrow in Furness as a result of which her tonnage
was increased to 9345grt. She had accommodation for 112 1st,
58 2nd, 108 families in 3rd and 1450 troops. In September 1939
she was converted into HM Hospital Ship No.23 with beds for
493 patients and accommodation for 59 medical staff. On 31st
January 1941 during s voyage to Tobruk to evacuate troops she
was, despite her markings, attacked outside Sollum in Libya.
Although the enemy had been advised that she was a Geneva Convention
ships she was attacked again on 1st February. On 12th July 1943
she was bombed and received superficial damage when 13 miles
from Cape Passero while supporting the Allied invasion of Sicily
which had commenced on the 9th July. She was decommissioned
on 8th March 1948 and rebuilt by Harland & Wolff to accommodate
tourists, returning to Bibby Line in November 1949. On 11th
December 1949 she sailed from Liverpool bound for Australia
with 550 passengers and back in Bibby Line livery after 21 years.
When the citizens at Adelaide wished to send food parcels back
to Britain they were refused because of the cost of becoming
a 'cargo' ship made the transit of the Suez Canal too expensive.
With her sister she was used to repatriate Dutch civilians from
Indonesia. During 1952 she was used as a hostel ship for workmen
building the Little Aden oil refinery and on 12th May 1953 sailed
from Liverpool with troops bound for Korea. She was laid up
in the following August and broken up in 1954. (Photo: Bibby
Line Group)
SOMERSETSHIRE
was built in 1921 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with a tonnage
of 7450grt, a length of 450ft 4in, a beam of 57ft 4in and a
service speed of 12 knots. Sister of the Dorsetshire she was
launched on 24th February 1921 and her maiden voyage in the
following May was on charter to the Royal Mail Steam Packet
Co. on their North Pacific service which terminated at Vancouver.
In 1927 she was converted into a permanent troopship with accommodation
for 1300 men and her first sailing was to China in the following
October. At the end of her return voyage in the December she
was delayed for eight days by gales in the Mediterranean and
her full complement celebrated Christmas at sea regardless of
the inclement weather. In January 1928 she began trooping to
Karachi which continued until May when she was laid up off Dartmouth.
While she was trooping to China in 1931 she suffered an outbreak
of influenza which affected 300 person but fortunately there
were no deaths. In September 1939 she was requisitioned and
converted into HM Hospital Ship No.25 with 507 beds, 118 medical
staff and 171 crew. She was present at the withdrawal from Narvik
in April 1940 and on 6th December of the same year was bombarded
from shore as her launches brought of the wounded at Tobruk.
In February 1941 she joined the Dorsetshire in evacuating the
wounded from besieged Tobruk before a period of operation from
the Red Sea to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand repatriating
wounded soldiers. On 7th April 1942, in the Mediterranean and
carrying no patients, she was torpedoed on the starboard side
forward by U-453 with the loss of 7 lives. As she settled by
the head and with a list her thirteen usable lifeboats took
off the Royal Army Corps personnel and 114 crew members. The
64 medical staff and 2 stewardesses were put aboard a Greek
destroyer and the crew reboarded her and managed to get her
to Alexandria on the port engine and assisted by tugs. During
1944-46 she sailed all over the world as a hospital ship finishing
up in the Pacific. In February 1948 she was decommissioned and
rebuilt by Harland & Wolff with accommodation for 550 passengers.
On 12th November 1948 she commenced her first sailing from Liverpool
to Australia in Bibby livery with 500 passengers on assisted
passages. During a voyage in 1952 she broke down in the Mediterranean
and limped home on one engine. In 1953 she briefly returned
to trooping to East Africa during the Mau Mau troubles and in
1954 was broken up by Thos. W. Ward and Barrow-in-Furness. (Photo:
Bibby Line Group)
SHROPSHIRE
(2) was built in 1926 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 10550grt, a length of 483ft
7in, a beam of 60ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Bibby's
first 'Burma' boat not built by Harland & Wolff she was
launched on 10th June 1926 and delivered to the company on 7th
October and was the lead ship of twelve from the Fairfield yard.
The reason for the change was that Fairfield's installed the
more compact Sulzer engine which left more cargo space. In October
1939 she was commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser and renamed
HMS Salopian as there was already a cruiser with the name Shropshire.
On 13th May 1941 she was torpedoed by U-98 when 300 off Greenland,
southeast of Cape Farewell. The first three torpedoes fired
by U-98 missed but two of the next spread and three of a third
spread hit the ship. In all it took eight torpedoes to sink
her. (Photo: Bibby Line Group)
CHESHIRE
(2) was built in 1927 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 10550grt, a length of 483ft
7in, a beam of 60ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Sister
of the Shropshire she was launched on 20th April 1927 and replaced
the Warwickshire (1) in the July. By 1934 her log recorded that
she had steamed 447,361 miles without ever having to stop because
of engine trouble. She was inbound when the Second World War
broke out on 3rd September 1939 and was ordered to Calcutta
where she was converted into Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Cheshire.
Armed with 6 x 6" and Anti-aircraft guns she was used on
North Atlantic patrols. On 14th October 1940, when west of Ireland,
she was torpedoed in her No.2 hold by U-137 and although she
was taken in tow by two rescue tugs she had to be beached at
Carrickfergus. While she was there a German bomb dropped close
to her but caused no damage. The Liverpool Salvage Association's
Ranger patched her up and she limped into Belfast before proceeding
to Liverpool's Gladstone Dock where repairs took six months.
On 14th March 1942, when off Cape Town, she stopped the German
raider Doggerbank which, being the captured Speybank of Bank
Line, identified herself as the Levenbank and was allowed to
proceed. Later, on 24th July, she took Lambert's Temple Inn
in tow and took her into Point Noire after she had shed her
propeller. On 18th August she was torpedoed again in the North
Atlantic by U-214 but managed to reach port and while she was
being repaired was converted into a troopship. At 0930 on 7th
June 1944 she arrived at Juno Beach, Normandy in line ahead
with the Lancashire, Devonshire and Worcestershire with, between
them, 10,000 troops. During 1945 she repatriated troops and
on 25th September 1946 arrived at Gibraltar with the residents
who had been evacuated to Northern Ireland in 1940. On 5th October
1948 she was returned to Bibby's while at Port Said and returned
to Liverpool where she was refurbished to carry 650 passengers.
She commenced her first sailing from Liverpool to Sydney on
9th August 1949. She returned to trooping on 5th February 1953
and carried military personnel during the Korean War. She ended
her last voyage on 10 February 1957 and was laid up at Langton
Dock in Liverpool. On 11th July 1957 she arrived at Newport,
Monmouthshire where she was broken up by J. Cashmore. (Photo:
Bibby Line Group)
STAFFORDSHIRE
(1) was built in 1929 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 10654grt, a length of 483ft
7in, a beam of 60ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Sister
of the Shropshire she was launched on 29th October 1929 and
commenced her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Rangoon on 22nd
February . When the Second World War broke out in 1939 she remained
in commercial service from Birkenhead to Rangoon until April
1940 when she was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport
for trooping between Southampton and Rangoon. On 28th May 1941
she was bombed three times by German Focke Wolf aircraft when
she was 140 miles northwest of the Butt of Lewis in the Outer
Hebrides. The ship had to be abandoned and most of the casualties,
14 passengers and 14 crew, were due to hypothermia after jumping
into the near freezing sea. The undamaged lifeboats were so
crowded that the survivors had to stand up holding on to each
other for 10 hours. The passengers were transferred to the naval
escorts and the crew eventually reboarded her and beached her
on the coast of Scotland. She was towed to the Tyne where she
was repaired and converted into a troopship for 1800 men. Her
tonnage was marginally increased to 10701grt and she returned
to service in January 1942. In August 1944 she took part in
the South of France landings and in August 1944 was present
at the invasion of Malaysia. Following that she was engaged
in repatriating Russian and Italian prisoners of war. During
1946/7 she continued service as a troopship and was scheduled
for decommissioning in 1948. However, due to the problems in
Malaysia she carried the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards to Singapore
before being returned to Bibby's in November 1948. She was immediately
sent to her builder and modernised before returning to the Liverpool
to Rangoon service where she remained for ten years. On 4th
July 1959 she arrived at Liverpool for the last time and, in
the October, she was sold for demolition. Renamed Stafford Maru
she made her last voyage from Liverpool - Casablanca - New Orleans
- Yokohama and Osaka where she was broken up by Mitsui Bussan
Kaisha. (From a painting by James S Mann)
WORCESTERSHIRE
(2) was built in 1931 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 10453grt, a length of 483ft,
a beam of 64ft 2in and a service speed of 15 knots. She was
launched on 8th October 1930, completed on 5th February 1931
and commenced her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Rangoon on
6th March. When the Second World War was declared she was inbound
from Burma and, in the November, was converted into the Armed
Merchant Cruiser HMS Worcestershire, and deployed as a convoy
escort in the North Atlantic. On 3rd April 1941 she was escorting
a convoy which lost ten ships and she herself was torpedoed
by U-74 but managed to reach Liverpool, taking 6 days to complete
the 980 mile voyage. She return to service in the following
November and was sent to the Far East for escort duties. In
June 1943 she was converted into a troopship for 2000 men and
in 1944 was at Southampton when she was selected for the Normandy
'Neptune Landings'. To reposition to London, where she embarked
her troops, for safety sake she had to sail via the north of
Scotland. On 6th June she sailed from the Thames with the Cheshire,
Lancashire and Devonshire to France where she landed her troops
on the Juno Beach in Normandy. In September 1945 she was present
at the re-occupation of the Malaysian Peninsular by Allied troops
and continued trooping throughout 1946. In all she carried 80,000
troops without any losses. She continued repatriating troops
form the Far East until October 1947 when she was returned to
Bibby's and her builder for modernisation. With her passenger
accommodation reduced to 100 first class she returned to commercial
service in January 1949 and continued until 1961 when she was
sold to C. Itoh & Co. of Osaka. Renamed Kannon Maru for
her final voyage she arrived at Osaka in the December where
she was broken up. (Photo: Bibby Line Group)
DERBYSHIRE
(2) was built in 1935 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 11660grt, a length of 482ft
7in, a beam of 66ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Bibby's
last four masted ship she was launched on 14th June 1935 and
commenced her maiden voyage from Birkenhead to Rangoon via Marseilles
and Colombo on 8th November. When the Second World War broke
out she was converted into the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Derbyshire
during November 1939. With her main and mizzen masts removed
and her after mast reduced to a stump she was armed with 6 x
6in, 2 x 3in anti-aircraft and machine guns and deployed on
Western Approaches patrols. She also acted as a convoy escort
and covered over 156,000 miles in under two years. In 1941 she
was decommissioned and converted into a troopship flying the
red ensign. During Operation Torch in November 1942 she carried
U. S. troops from Liverpool to Arzew Bay in Algeria and troop
reinforcements to Mers-el-Kebir and Algiers. Later in that year
she was converted into an LSI (Landing Ship Infantry) for the
invasion of Sicily and equipped with 20 assault craft in two
tiers under the davits with one 'leader' on deck. In 1943 she
was part of 'Force G' and landed, at Pechino in two waves, first
her commando force followed by Canadian troops onto the same
beaches. On 22nd January 1944 she carried troops to the Anzio
beaches and, in the following August, took part in Operation
Anvil, the invasion of Southern France where she landed U. S.
troops at Cap Camarat before returning to Liverpool to prepare
for service in the Far East. In January 1945 she sailed for
Bombay and Ceylon where, on 3rd September and as headquarters
ship to General Mansergh she took the first troops back into
Rangoon from where she proceeded to Singapore. Technically,
she was the first Bibby ship to visit Burma after the war. On
5th September she was the first troopship to berth at Singapore
and the surrender of the Japanese Garrison was controlled from
her. As many as possible freed Allied prisoners of war being
taken aboard where they were tended and fed while awaiting the
arrival of other ships. During 1946 she continued trooping and
repatriated military personnel from the Far East. Throughout
her wartime service she carried some 136,000 troops and steamed
330,000 miles. Returned to Bibby's in November 1947 she was
refurbished for the Burma service where she remained until 1964
when a scheme to convert her into an exhibition ship failed
to materialise. As a result she was broken up in the Far East.
(From a painting by James S Mann)
DEVONSHIRE
(1) was built in 1939 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 11275grt, a length of 516ft
10in, a beam of 63ft 4in and a service speed of 16 knots. A
near sister to British India's Dunera she was launched as a
permanent troopship on 20th December 1938 with accommodation
for 104 1st Class, 90 2nd Class passengers and 1150 troops.
On 8th July 1939 she was laid up at Dartmouth to await the trooping
season and on 17th August sailed from Southampton to India.
From there she spent four and a half years trooping in the Far
East, Australia, South Africa and the Mediterranean before returning
to the United Kingdom. In 1943 she was converted into an LSI
(Landing Ship Infantry) at Suez and acted as the Command Operations
Ship during the invasion of Sicily and as an assault ship at
the Salerno landings. When she returned to the UK in April 1944
she joined the Worcestershire, Cheshire and Lancashire at the
'D' Day landings on 6th/7th June and carried troops from the
River Thames to the Juno Beach in Normandy. After the war in
Europe ended she then carried troops to Malaysia and Korea.
In February 1951, en route to Gibraltar and in a gale in the
Bay of Biscay, her engines were put out of action when a spare
piston rod broke loose. She broached to and rolled to 45% before
power was restored. A previously sent 'Mayday' signal was cancelled
and so much crockery was smashed that it was difficult to feed
the troops onboard. She was refitted by her builder in April
1953 when hammocks were replaced by two tier metal bunks and,
on completion, was chartered to the Sea Transport Division of
the Ministry of Transport to replace the Empire Pride operating
from Southampton instead of Liverpool. Her refit increased her
tonnage to 12773grt and altered her capacity to 130 1st Class,
96 2nd Class, 99 3rd Class passengers and 824 troops. In January
1962 the trooping contract was bought out by the Ministry of
Transport and she was sold to British India for £175,000
to join the Dunera. Refitted by Barclay, Curle & Co. at
Glasgow she was converted into an educational ship with accommodation
for 190 1st Class, 96 2nd Class and 830 students and renamed
Devonia. After five years in that role she arrived at La Spezia
on 14th December 1967 where she was broken up. (From a painting
by James S Mann)
HEREFORDSHIRE
(2) was built in 1944 by Barclay, Curle & Co. at Glasgow
with a tonnage of 8158grt, a length of 471ft 7in, a beam of
64ft 2in and a service speed of 16 knots. Built as a cargo ship
her specification included the provision for future conversion
into a passenger ship should the trade warrant it.. When the
Second World War ended she was the only Bibby ship on the Liverpool
to Rangoon service until the Derbyshire joined her. In 1954
she was chartered to Port Line for ten years and renamed Port
Hardy but reverted to Herefordshire in 1961. She was sold to
Troodos Shipping & Trading Co. Ltd of London in 1969 and
renamed Merryland. Two years later she was transferred to their
subsidiary Cia Naviera Meritath of Limassol, Cyprus under the
ownership of Cyprus Sea Cruises with the intention of converting
her into a cruise ship. The project never materialised and on
2nd February 1973 she arrived at Kaohsuing where she was broken
up. (Photo: Bibby Line Group)
WARWICKSHIRE (2) was built in 1948 by Fairfield Shipbuilding
& Engineering Co. at Govan with a tonnage of 8903grt, a
length of 480ft 6in, a beam of 60ft 3in and a service speed
of 15.5 knots. Launched on 14th August 1947 she was the company's
first single screw ship for 49 years and the first steamship
for 27 years. She took 2 years to complete and commenced her
maiden voyage on the Birkenhead - Burma service on 5th September
1948. Due to Burma being given Independence and the consequent
emergence of local competition she maintained a declining service
throughout her career with the company. In 1965 the passenger
service was discontinued and, being unsuitable for other deployment,
she was sold to Typaldos Bros' Aegean Steam Navigation Co.,
who converted her into an overnight car carrying ferry which
operated between Piraeus and Crete. Renamed Hania, although
listed by Typaldos as the Chanea, her mast and derrick posts
were removed and the well decks were covered over. In 1966 the
Typaldos Bros. went bankrupt and she was consequently laid up
with the rest of the fleet at Perama. She eventually deteriorated,
became a derelict and was abandoned and scrapped. (Photo: Bibby
Line Group)
(2).jpg)
LEICESTERSHIRE
(1) was built in 1909 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 8059grt, a length of 467ft 2in, a beam of 54ft
2in and a service speed of 15 knots. Launched on 3rd June 1909
and delivered on 11th September she made her maiden voyage from
Birkenhead to Rangoon. In August 1914 she was requisitioned
for trooping for the Indian Expeditionary Force and carried
Indian and Burmese troops to the Persian Gulf before reverting
to Bibby services in the following November. She was taken over
under the Liner Requisition Scheme in March 1917 and served
on the North Atlantic although two voyages were made for Bibby's
during that time. In 1918 she carried troops to North Russia
to assist the White Russians before repatriating Australian
soldiers. She was refurbished by her builders in 1919 during
which time she was converted to oil burning. As with all conversions
to oil the coal bunker forward of the funnel was converted into
cargo space and derrick posts fitted to serve the hatch. In
1930 she was sold to the British National Exhibition Ship Co.,
renamed British Exhibitor, and refurbished for her new role
by Cammell Laird & Co. of Birkenhead at a cost of £100,000.
When the slump hit her owners went into voluntary liquidation
in February 1932 and she was laid up at Southampton for a year.
On 28th September 1933 she was purchased by the Cairo based
Egyptian Company for Transport & Navigation and, as the
Zam Zam, was deployed on their Egypt to Jeddah service. In May
1934 she was transferred to Societe Misr de Navigation of Alexandria
without a change of name. Laid up at Suez in October 1939 she
resumed service on the Alexandria - Cape Town - New York service
in February 1941. On 21st March 1941 she left New York bound
for Recife where she embarked 202 passengers and sailed on 9th
April. At 0545 on 17th April, although a neutral, she was hit
by 55 shells fired by the German raider Atlantis in ten minutes
during which around 24 lives were lost. Seven hours later she
was sunk with three bombs along the waterline. The survivors
were taken aboard the Dresden which proceeded to St. Jean de
Luz. It later transpired that the commander of the Atlantis,
Bernhard Rogge, recognised her as a Bibby ship and decided that
she was disguised as a troopship. (Photo: Bibby Line Group)
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
(1) was built in 1910 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 8124grt, a length of 467ft 2in, a beam of 54ft
2in and a service speed of 15 knots. Sister of the Leicestershire
she was launched on 7th July 1910 and completed on 22nd October.
On 11th July 1913 she represented Bibby's at the Mersey Pageant.
In August 1914 she was requisitioned for trooping duties and
in December 1915 was converted into the Armed Merchant Cruiser
HMS Gloucestershire and served with the 10th Cruiser Squadron.
She was deployed on 'E' Patrol between Shetland and Iceland
with Royal Mail Line's Ebro. In February 1916 she came under
the control of the Minister of Blockade, Lord Robert Cecil.
Decommissioned in 1917 she returned to trooping and on 2nd February
1936 arrived at Pembroke Dock where she was broken up by Thos.
W. Ward. (Photo: Bibby Line Group) 
OXFORDSHIRE
(1) was built in 1912 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 8648grt, a length of 474ft 7in, a beam of 55ft
4in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Launched on 15th June
1912 and completed on 17th September she was the company's last
ship built with a counter stern. On 2nd August 1914 she was
the first ship to be requisitioned for war service two days
prior to the outbreak. En-route from Liverpool to London she
was off the Isle of Wight and was ordered into Tilbury where
she was converted into Naval Hospital Ship No.1 with 562 beds.
Commissioned on 11th August she was sent to Scapa Flow as a
base ship on 25th September but proved to be too large for the
needs at the time and subsequently moved to the English Channel
to undertake army hospital work. In April 1915 she was deployed
as the base hospital ship at Mudros and was present during the
ANZAC withdrawal at the Dardenelles, bringing off the wounded
in her own boats. The victorious Turks respected the red cross
and did not fire on them. She served in the Persian Gulf and
German East Africa during December 1916 and in 1918 as a shuttle
hospital ship in the English Channel. Decommissioned on 24th
March 1919 she had made 235 voyages, steamed 172,000 miles without
a single breakdown and carried 50,000 wounded, the highest of
any hospital ship in the war. She was refurbished and converted
to oil burning by her builder in 1920 and resumed commercial
services. On 3rd September 1939 she was requisitioned, once
again, for war time service and converted into Hospital Ship
No. 6 with 500 beds at the Royal Albert Dock in London. Commissioned
on 24th September she left London on 11th November bound for
Freetown with 98 medical staff and 177 crew where she served
as the base hospital ship. In September 1942 she was redeployed
in the Mediterranean. After a refit on the Clyde in 1944 she
was sent to the Adriatic where the Army's Anglia had been damaged
by mines and on 29th October was herself damaged by a bomb near
miss during a voyage between Ancona and Bari. In November of
that year she was sent to the Far East where she served the
Admiralty Islands/Philippines and Australia. At one point she
was loaned to the U.S. 7th Fleet for use during the taking of
Okinawa. After the defeat of Japan in 1945 she was used to repatriate
the wounded from Hong Kong and in May 1946 became an Army hospital
ship to bring the sick home from the near and Far East. She
also repatriated Indian troops from Basra to Bombay as well
as making four North Atlantic crossings with refugees. In 1948
she arrived home with troops from Palestine and , on 19th July,
was decommissioned at Southampton after carrying 22,321 casualties
during the war, again the highest of any hospital ship. On 8th
September of that year she made one one more voyage on charter
to Jeddah with pilgrims before she was reconditioned by Harland
& Wolff at Liverpool. In April 1949 she made the first sailing
for the International Refugee Organisation to Australia with
emigrants and in 1950 reverted to trooping duties between Trieste
and Port Said. She finished trooping in February 1951 and on
13th April sailed from Liverpool as the Safina-el-Arab having
been sold to the Pan-Islamic Steamship Co. of Karachi, their
first passenger ship. Deployed on the Karachi - Jeddah Pilgrim
service between June and October she spent the remainder of
the year operating between Karachi and Chittagong. After 46
years of impeccable service she was broken up at Karachi in
1858. (Photo: Bibby Line Group) 
LANCASHIRE
(2) was built in 1914 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 9542grt, a length of 482ft 4in, a beam of 57ft
4in and a service speed of 15 knots. Laid down in August 1914
her construction was delayed by the war and she wasn't launched
until 17th January 1917. She was completed in the following
July, albeit in austere style, and sailed from Birkenhead to
Rangoon in the August under the Liner Requisition Scheme. In
November 1918 she commenced repatriating French prisoners of
war and later Belgian refugees. Released from the Liner Requisition
Scheme on 13th December 1918, in January 1919 she was deployed
on trooping duties firstly from Antwerp and Plymouth to Australia
and then from the United Kingdom to the U. S. A. In January
of that year she grounded at Steenbank in Belgium and was refloated
the next day. She was released back to Bibby's in 1920 and whilst
waiting to return to her builders in Belfast was placed on the
Birkenhead to Rangoon service. Finished to Bibby standards and
converted to oil burning during 1921 she then returned to troopship
duties in the company livery. In 1923 she had a fire in her
cargo when at Tilbury and then in 1924 she had a fire in her
cargo of rice meal when she was approaching Marseilles. The
fire was extinguished after 100 tons of rice was dumped overboard.
On 28th April 1930 work was started at Camnmell Laird &
Co. at Birkenhead to convert her into a permanent troopship
to replace Ellerman's City of Marseilles. Emerging with a white
troopship livery she sailed from Southampton on 23rd December
1931 carrying the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. To
delay her until after Christmas would have cost £400 per
day but, to make amends, a full festive programme took place
off the coast of Portugal. In November 1939 she was the commodore
ship in a convoy which included the Devonshire and five British
India ships sailing between Bombay and Marseilles with the first
contingent of the Indian Expeditionary Force. On 'D' Day, 6th/7th
June 1944, she acted as commodore ship for convoy ETP 1and sailed
from the Thames to Juno Beach in Normandy in line ahead with
the Cheshire, Worcestershire and Devonshire. In 1945 she was
converted into a depot and store ship for the Pacific Fleet
Train and in April of that year sailed from Liverpool with 500
technicians bound for Hong Kong where the engineers were used
to restore public services and to get the dockyard operating.
She then assisted with the repatriation of sick troops. In 1946
she was refurbished by Harland & Wolff at Govan into a peacetime
troopship and trooped continuously to Cyprus, India and the
Far East for the next ten years. In 1946 she was replaced by
the Oxfordshire (2) and was broken up by Thos. W. ward at Barrow-in-Furness
in the February. (From a painting by James S Mann) 
YORKSHIRE
(2) was built in 1920 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 10184grt, a length of 482ft 5in, a beam of 58ft
4in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. She was built as a wartime
replacement in the quickest possible time and equipped with
engines that were immediately available. Consequently, she was
the odd ship in a fleet of reciprocating engines and during
her trials experienced gearing problems. However, she was the
company's first ship to exceed 10,000grt. On 17th September
1939 she became Bibby's first World War 2 casualty. She was
proceeding in convoy from Gibraltar to Liverpool when, at 0836
and as commodore ship, she reported that they were resisting
an attack from a submarine which then proceeded to submerge
and shadow the convoy. At 1643 she was torpedoed by U-37 off
the coast of France with the loss of 33 passengers and 25 crew
members. The US steamship Independence Hall rescued 118 passengers
and 160 crew and the submarine surfaced and, in English, thanked
the American ship, which was still neutral, for rescuing the
survivors. Ellerman Lines City of Mandalay was lost during the
same attack. (Photo: Bibby Line Group) 
DORSETSHIRE
(1) was built in 1920 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with
a tonnage of 7450grt, a length of 450ft 4in, a beam of 57ft
4in and a service speed of 12 knots. One of a pair she was designed
with higher than normal 'tween deck clearance so that she could
be converted into a troopship if required. When launched on
22nd April 1920 she was the largest motorship at the time and
was completed as a tin ore carrying cargo ship. However, before
completion the ore which was mined at Mamtu and Mawchi in Burma
began to be refined locally so she was actually deployed as
a general cargo ship operating between the UK- and Burma for
Bibby Line and between the UK and India on charter to T &
J Brocklebank. In 1927 she was converted into a permanent troopship
by Vickers at Barrow in Furness as a result of which her tonnage
was increased to 9345grt. She had accommodation for 112 1st,
58 2nd, 108 families in 3rd and 1450 troops. In September 1939
she was converted into HM Hospital Ship No.23 with beds for
493 patients and accommodation for 59 medical staff. On 31st
January 1941 during s voyage to Tobruk to evacuate troops she
was, despite her markings, attacked outside Sollum in Libya.
Although the enemy had been advised that she was a Geneva Convention
ships she was attacked again on 1st February. On 12th July 1943
she was bombed and received superficial damage when 13 miles
from Cape Passero while supporting the Allied invasion of Sicily
which had commenced on the 9th July. She was decommissioned
on 8th March 1948 and rebuilt by Harland & Wolff to accommodate
tourists, returning to Bibby Line in November 1949. On 11th
December 1949 she sailed from Liverpool bound for Australia
with 550 passengers and back in Bibby Line livery after 21 years.
When the citizens at Adelaide wished to send food parcels back
to Britain they were refused because of the cost of becoming
a 'cargo' ship made the transit of the Suez Canal too expensive.
With her sister she was used to repatriate Dutch civilians from
Indonesia. During 1952 she was used as a hostel ship for workmen
building the Little Aden oil refinery and on 12th May 1953 sailed
from Liverpool with troops bound for Korea. She was laid up
in the following August and broken up in 1954. (Photo: Bibby
Line Group) 
SOMERSETSHIRE
was built in 1921 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with a tonnage
of 7450grt, a length of 450ft 4in, a beam of 57ft 4in and a
service speed of 12 knots. Sister of the Dorsetshire she was
launched on 24th February 1921 and her maiden voyage in the
following May was on charter to the Royal Mail Steam Packet
Co. on their North Pacific service which terminated at Vancouver.
In 1927 she was converted into a permanent troopship with accommodation
for 1300 men and her first sailing was to China in the following
October. At the end of her return voyage in the December she
was delayed for eight days by gales in the Mediterranean and
her full complement celebrated Christmas at sea regardless of
the inclement weather. In January 1928 she began trooping to
Karachi which continued until May when she was laid up off Dartmouth.
While she was trooping to China in 1931 she suffered an outbreak
of influenza which affected 300 person but fortunately there
were no deaths. In September 1939 she was requisitioned and
converted into HM Hospital Ship No.25 with 507 beds, 118 medical
staff and 171 crew. She was present at the withdrawal from Narvik
in April 1940 and on 6th December of the same year was bombarded
from shore as her launches brought of the wounded at Tobruk.
In February 1941 she joined the Dorsetshire in evacuating the
wounded from besieged Tobruk before a period of operation from
the Red Sea to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand repatriating
wounded soldiers. On 7th April 1942, in the Mediterranean and
carrying no patients, she was torpedoed on the starboard side
forward by U-453 with the loss of 7 lives. As she settled by
the head and with a list her thirteen usable lifeboats took
off the Royal Army Corps personnel and 114 crew members. The
64 medical staff and 2 stewardesses were put aboard a Greek
destroyer and the crew reboarded her and managed to get her
to Alexandria on the port engine and assisted by tugs. During
1944-46 she sailed all over the world as a hospital ship finishing
up in the Pacific. In February 1948 she was decommissioned and
rebuilt by Harland & Wolff with accommodation for 550 passengers.
On 12th November 1948 she commenced her first sailing from Liverpool
to Australia in Bibby livery with 500 passengers on assisted
passages. During a voyage in 1952 she broke down in the Mediterranean
and limped home on one engine. In 1953 she briefly returned
to trooping to East Africa during the Mau Mau troubles and in
1954 was broken up by Thos. W. Ward and Barrow-in-Furness. (Photo:
Bibby Line Group) 
SHROPSHIRE
(2) was built in 1926 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 10550grt, a length of 483ft
7in, a beam of 60ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Bibby's
first 'Burma' boat not built by Harland & Wolff she was
launched on 10th June 1926 and delivered to the company on 7th
October and was the lead ship of twelve from the Fairfield yard.
The reason for the change was that Fairfield's installed the
more compact Sulzer engine which left more cargo space. In October
1939 she was commissioned as an Armed Merchant Cruiser and renamed
HMS Salopian as there was already a cruiser with the name Shropshire.
On 13th May 1941 she was torpedoed by U-98 when 300 off Greenland,
southeast of Cape Farewell. The first three torpedoes fired
by U-98 missed but two of the next spread and three of a third
spread hit the ship. In all it took eight torpedoes to sink
her. (Photo: Bibby Line Group) 
CHESHIRE
(2) was built in 1927 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 10550grt, a length of 483ft
7in, a beam of 60ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Sister
of the Shropshire she was launched on 20th April 1927 and replaced
the Warwickshire (1) in the July. By 1934 her log recorded that
she had steamed 447,361 miles without ever having to stop because
of engine trouble. She was inbound when the Second World War
broke out on 3rd September 1939 and was ordered to Calcutta
where she was converted into Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Cheshire.
Armed with 6 x 6" and Anti-aircraft guns she was used on
North Atlantic patrols. On 14th October 1940, when west of Ireland,
she was torpedoed in her No.2 hold by U-137 and although she
was taken in tow by two rescue tugs she had to be beached at
Carrickfergus. While she was there a German bomb dropped close
to her but caused no damage. The Liverpool Salvage Association's
Ranger patched her up and she limped into Belfast before proceeding
to Liverpool's Gladstone Dock where repairs took six months.
On 14th March 1942, when off Cape Town, she stopped the German
raider Doggerbank which, being the captured Speybank of Bank
Line, identified herself as the Levenbank and was allowed to
proceed. Later, on 24th July, she took Lambert's Temple Inn
in tow and took her into Point Noire after she had shed her
propeller. On 18th August she was torpedoed again in the North
Atlantic by U-214 but managed to reach port and while she was
being repaired was converted into a troopship. At 0930 on 7th
June 1944 she arrived at Juno Beach, Normandy in line ahead
with the Lancashire, Devonshire and Worcestershire with, between
them, 10,000 troops. During 1945 she repatriated troops and
on 25th September 1946 arrived at Gibraltar with the residents
who had been evacuated to Northern Ireland in 1940. On 5th October
1948 she was returned to Bibby's while at Port Said and returned
to Liverpool where she was refurbished to carry 650 passengers.
She commenced her first sailing from Liverpool to Sydney on
9th August 1949. She returned to trooping on 5th February 1953
and carried military personnel during the Korean War. She ended
her last voyage on 10 February 1957 and was laid up at Langton
Dock in Liverpool. On 11th July 1957 she arrived at Newport,
Monmouthshire where she was broken up by J. Cashmore. (Photo:
Bibby Line Group) 
STAFFORDSHIRE
(1) was built in 1929 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 10654grt, a length of 483ft
7in, a beam of 60ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Sister
of the Shropshire she was launched on 29th October 1929 and
commenced her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Rangoon on 22nd
February . When the Second World War broke out in 1939 she remained
in commercial service from Birkenhead to Rangoon until April
1940 when she was requisitioned by the Ministry of War Transport
for trooping between Southampton and Rangoon. On 28th May 1941
she was bombed three times by German Focke Wolf aircraft when
she was 140 miles northwest of the Butt of Lewis in the Outer
Hebrides. The ship had to be abandoned and most of the casualties,
14 passengers and 14 crew, were due to hypothermia after jumping
into the near freezing sea. The undamaged lifeboats were so
crowded that the survivors had to stand up holding on to each
other for 10 hours. The passengers were transferred to the naval
escorts and the crew eventually reboarded her and beached her
on the coast of Scotland. She was towed to the Tyne where she
was repaired and converted into a troopship for 1800 men. Her
tonnage was marginally increased to 10701grt and she returned
to service in January 1942. In August 1944 she took part in
the South of France landings and in August 1944 was present
at the invasion of Malaysia. Following that she was engaged
in repatriating Russian and Italian prisoners of war. During
1946/7 she continued service as a troopship and was scheduled
for decommissioning in 1948. However, due to the problems in
Malaysia she carried the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards to Singapore
before being returned to Bibby's in November 1948. She was immediately
sent to her builder and modernised before returning to the Liverpool
to Rangoon service where she remained for ten years. On 4th
July 1959 she arrived at Liverpool for the last time and, in
the October, she was sold for demolition. Renamed Stafford Maru
she made her last voyage from Liverpool - Casablanca - New Orleans
- Yokohama and Osaka where she was broken up by Mitsui Bussan
Kaisha. (From a painting by James S Mann) 
WORCESTERSHIRE
(2) was built in 1931 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 10453grt, a length of 483ft,
a beam of 64ft 2in and a service speed of 15 knots. She was
launched on 8th October 1930, completed on 5th February 1931
and commenced her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Rangoon on
6th March. When the Second World War was declared she was inbound
from Burma and, in the November, was converted into the Armed
Merchant Cruiser HMS Worcestershire, and deployed as a convoy
escort in the North Atlantic. On 3rd April 1941 she was escorting
a convoy which lost ten ships and she herself was torpedoed
by U-74 but managed to reach Liverpool, taking 6 days to complete
the 980 mile voyage. She return to service in the following
November and was sent to the Far East for escort duties. In
June 1943 she was converted into a troopship for 2000 men and
in 1944 was at Southampton when she was selected for the Normandy
'Neptune Landings'. To reposition to London, where she embarked
her troops, for safety sake she had to sail via the north of
Scotland. On 6th June she sailed from the Thames with the Cheshire,
Lancashire and Devonshire to France where she landed her troops
on the Juno Beach in Normandy. In September 1945 she was present
at the re-occupation of the Malaysian Peninsular by Allied troops
and continued trooping throughout 1946. In all she carried 80,000
troops without any losses. She continued repatriating troops
form the Far East until October 1947 when she was returned to
Bibby's and her builder for modernisation. With her passenger
accommodation reduced to 100 first class she returned to commercial
service in January 1949 and continued until 1961 when she was
sold to C. Itoh & Co. of Osaka. Renamed Kannon Maru for
her final voyage she arrived at Osaka in the December where
she was broken up. (Photo: Bibby Line Group) 
DERBYSHIRE
(2) was built in 1935 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 11660grt, a length of 482ft
7in, a beam of 66ft 2in and a service speed of 15.5 knots. Bibby's
last four masted ship she was launched on 14th June 1935 and
commenced her maiden voyage from Birkenhead to Rangoon via Marseilles
and Colombo on 8th November. When the Second World War broke
out she was converted into the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Derbyshire
during November 1939. With her main and mizzen masts removed
and her after mast reduced to a stump she was armed with 6 x
6in, 2 x 3in anti-aircraft and machine guns and deployed on
Western Approaches patrols. She also acted as a convoy escort
and covered over 156,000 miles in under two years. In 1941 she
was decommissioned and converted into a troopship flying the
red ensign. During Operation Torch in November 1942 she carried
U. S. troops from Liverpool to Arzew Bay in Algeria and troop
reinforcements to Mers-el-Kebir and Algiers. Later in that year
she was converted into an LSI (Landing Ship Infantry) for the
invasion of Sicily and equipped with 20 assault craft in two
tiers under the davits with one 'leader' on deck. In 1943 she
was part of 'Force G' and landed, at Pechino in two waves, first
her commando force followed by Canadian troops onto the same
beaches. On 22nd January 1944 she carried troops to the Anzio
beaches and, in the following August, took part in Operation
Anvil, the invasion of Southern France where she landed U. S.
troops at Cap Camarat before returning to Liverpool to prepare
for service in the Far East. In January 1945 she sailed for
Bombay and Ceylon where, on 3rd September and as headquarters
ship to General Mansergh she took the first troops back into
Rangoon from where she proceeded to Singapore. Technically,
she was the first Bibby ship to visit Burma after the war. On
5th September she was the first troopship to berth at Singapore
and the surrender of the Japanese Garrison was controlled from
her. As many as possible freed Allied prisoners of war being
taken aboard where they were tended and fed while awaiting the
arrival of other ships. During 1946 she continued trooping and
repatriated military personnel from the Far East. Throughout
her wartime service she carried some 136,000 troops and steamed
330,000 miles. Returned to Bibby's in November 1947 she was
refurbished for the Burma service where she remained until 1964
when a scheme to convert her into an exhibition ship failed
to materialise. As a result she was broken up in the Far East.
(From a painting by James S Mann) 
DEVONSHIRE
(1) was built in 1939 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering
Co. at Glasgow with a tonnage of 11275grt, a length of 516ft
10in, a beam of 63ft 4in and a service speed of 16 knots. A
near sister to British India's Dunera she was launched as a
permanent troopship on 20th December 1938 with accommodation
for 104 1st Class, 90 2nd Class passengers and 1150 troops.
On 8th July 1939 she was laid up at Dartmouth to await the trooping
season and on 17th August sailed from Southampton to India.
From there she spent four and a half years trooping in the Far
East, Australia, South Africa and the Mediterranean before returning
to the United Kingdom. In 1943 she was converted into an LSI
(Landing Ship Infantry) at Suez and acted as the Command Operations
Ship during the invasion of Sicily and as an assault ship at
the Salerno landings. When she returned to the UK in April 1944
she joined the Worcestershire, Cheshire and Lancashire at the
'D' Day landings on 6th/7th June and carried troops from the
River Thames to the Juno Beach in Normandy. After the war in
Europe ended she then carried troops to Malaysia and Korea.
In February 1951, en route to Gibraltar and in a gale in the
Bay of Biscay, her engines were put out of action when a spare
piston rod broke loose. She broached to and rolled to 45% before
power was restored. A previously sent 'Mayday' signal was cancelled
and so much crockery was smashed that it was difficult to feed
the troops onboard. She was refitted by her builder in April
1953 when hammocks were replaced by two tier metal bunks and,
on completion, was chartered to the Sea Transport Division of
the Ministry of Transport to replace the Empire Pride operating
from Southampton instead of Liverpool. Her refit increased her
tonnage to 12773grt and altered her capacity to 130 1st Class,
96 2nd Class, 99 3rd Class passengers and 824 troops. In January
1962 the trooping contract was bought out by the Ministry of
Transport and she was sold to British India for £175,000
to join the Dunera. Refitted by Barclay, Curle & Co. at
Glasgow she was converted into an educational ship with accommodation
for 190 1st Class, 96 2nd Class and 830 students and renamed
Devonia. After five years in that role she arrived at La Spezia
on 14th December 1967 where she was broken up. (From a painting
by James S Mann) 
HEREFORDSHIRE
(2) was built in 1944 by Barclay, Curle & Co. at Glasgow
with a tonnage of 8158grt, a length of 471ft 7in, a beam of
64ft 2in and a service speed of 16 knots. Built as a cargo ship
her specification included the provision for future conversion
into a passenger ship should the trade warrant it.. When the
Second World War ended she was the only Bibby ship on the Liverpool
to Rangoon service until the Derbyshire joined her. In 1954
she was chartered to Port Line for ten years and renamed Port
Hardy but reverted to Herefordshire in 1961. She was sold to
Troodos Shipping & Trading Co. Ltd of London in 1969 and
renamed Merryland. Two years later she was transferred to their
subsidiary Cia Naviera Meritath of Limassol, Cyprus under the
ownership of Cyprus Sea Cruises with the intention of converting
her into a cruise ship. The project never materialised and on
2nd February 1973 she arrived at Kaohsuing where she was broken
up. (Photo: Bibby Line Group) 
