When 74 years ago the hull of the Transport and Harbours Department passenger and cargo vessel, Lady Northcote first touched water, no one in his wildest dreams would have thought 74 years later, she would have still been in service.
Over the years, the Lady Northcote underwent several rounds of repairs to engines and a battered body. It is remarkable that despite her years in service and weakened structure, she refused to allow the treacherous waves to rule her as she courageously carried out her dutiful routine of ferrying passengers and cargoes to both coastal and riverine areas in Guyana.
But as much as she was brave, everything catches up with age, and late last week passengers travelling  from Port Kaituma in the North West District in Region One to Georgetown in Region Four, were given the scare of their lives when the engine room caught fire just outside Port Georgetown.
Like many other T&HD steamers, the Lady Northcote plied the waters of all three rivers of Guyana, as from time to time she was required to assume duties in Berbice,  Demerara  and the Essequibo, and it was returning from an Essequibo bound trip when disaster struck, and she had to be towed into Port.
The fire on the Lady Northcote gives rise to questioning the authorities about how long more she would be kept in active service, and as to whether it would be economically viable to keep her in service. We are certain that because of her age, the Lady Northcote, like a few others which are still in service, would require large sums from time to time to keep them afloat and going.
Although the coastal areas in Guyana are mostly populated, quite a few sizable amounts of the country’s population live in the far-reaching riverine areas, and air transport for good and people to these areas would cause an increase in the cost of living, hence the dependence of river transport.
The Lady Northcote was launched in June 1937 by the British builders Fergusons in Scotland. It was ordered by the colonial Government in those days to serve riverine communities as a passenger/cargo vessel. It should be pointed out that over the years, like other public passenger and cargo vessels, the Lady Northcote was maintained not with exacting standards of other countries like England or Scotland for instance, with more budgetary allocations, but with amazing resourcefulness and local know how.
Although the fire onboard the Lady Northcote in no way signals the end of her service, it indeed calls for a thorough probe into the seaworthiness of the other older boats that are in the country’s passenger and cargo services. We need to check on the remaining lifespan of those vessels which are more than 60 years old, maybe fifty years.
We commend the government for acquiring two roll-on/roll-off ferries from the People’s Republic of China which are to be thrown into the Parika/Supenaam service. This is a tremendous effort by the government to improve the services on the Essequibo between Parika and Supenaam.  A great deal of the country’s population lives on the Essequibo Coast and islands and they always need adequate and reliable transportation for they and their farm produce to markets on the coast and Georgetown.
Last week’s near tragedy brought all 49 passengers and 13 crewmen along with cargo, which included motor vehicles, safely into Port, and they were spared a major disaster. While we welcome the probe ordered into the incident by the Minister of Transport, Robeson Benn, we believe that similar probes should be carried out on other vessels which have been in the service for a long time now.