General Manager of the Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) of the Public Works Ministry, Ms Marclene Merchant has reported that the Lady Northcote, which earlier in the month caught fire as it neared the Georgetown port, returning from a trip to the North West, has resumed operations. “Lady Northcote departed the Kingston Wharf Tuesday morning at around 10:00hrs en route to Port Kaituma, North West District. It was laden with cargo and passengers. It arrived at Port Kaituma around 16:00hrs, event free,” Ms Merchant, said.

She added that whilst the vessel was docked for repairs, engineers worked round the clock to ensure they fix the problems.
“The downtime to accommodate repairs resulted in a minor disruption to the department’s schedule which resulted in one return trip being missed,” Merchant said.
On March 10 last, the Lady Northcote, which is about 70 years old, and the oldest ferry vessel in the department’s fleet which plies the Georgetown-North West, Region One route every fortnight, caught fire on its return from the North West.
The captain and crew took quick action, and followed the necessary regulations to extinguish the fire that was caused by an oil leak in the engine room.
While none of the 49 passengers onboard were injured, a vehicle parked near the engine room was damaged.