Reports that Leonard C. Bibby appeared in Eastbourne yesterday, Monday 21 September, suggest that the account of his death at sea may require amendment. Bibby himself is said to regard the matter as settled. He has offered an explanation for the interrupted passage aboard Morrow and denies having died during it. The reports of his appearance remain private accounts of an arrival, without the public scene that some versions of the weekend have already begun to supply.
Sunday's overdue report concerned a 26-foot sailing boat that had left Ramsgate on 18 September and failed to arrive in Eastbourne when expected. The intended first stop was Dover. With no arrival message reaching the people waiting ashore, concern spread beyond the original conversation. The boat's movements were not being followed through a complete sequence of positions. Much of what appeared to be a developing account was the same unanswered question passing between different people.
Bibby's explanation puts Morrow in Dover on Friday night and heading west on Saturday 19 September. He says an unreliable engine charging circuit was failing to replenish the domestic battery, leaving a phone already low on power increasingly difficult to use. The engine itself, in his account, remained available. He describes a decision to stop at Rye short of Eastbourne and deal with the electrical problem. That distinction has been lost in versions which turn a charging fault into a disabled boat adrift offshore.
Rye supplies a plausible interruption to the route, although its name settles less than a full account of the stop would. The harbour is tidal and dries; Morrow is described as a bilge-keel boat capable of taking the ground upright. Bibby places himself alongside there for much of Sunday, checking connections and preparing to continue. No exact arrival time or berth has been given, leaving the timing of the stop difficult to check. It should be read as his account of the missing interval.
The gap in communication is harder to close. Bibby believes that a brief update had already gone through. The people waiting for the Eastbourne arrival evidently did not receive the reassurance he thought he had supplied. An electrical fault does not explain every opportunity to make contact once ashore. His account may explain the delay more readily than the silence, and it leaves room for questions considerably smaller than whether he survived the weekend.
Meanwhile, overdue had become lost in some private retellings, and lost had acquired the finality of a death report. An appearance in Eastbourne on 21 September is inconvenient for that wording. Bibby's denial is also relevant, although he is an interested party and has an obvious preference for one conclusion. His subsequent availability to dispute the matter strengthens the practical case. For the present, the editorial position is that Leonard Bibby is probably alive.
Further biographical notes: Leonard C. Bibby — Beyond the office.