Working arrangements exist between certain of the railway companies and the steam-ship lines, one of the most important being the joint service maintained by the Great Eastern Railway Company and the General Steam Navigation Company from London to Hamburg, via Harwich. The steamers on this route sail twice weekly. There is also an agreement between the Great Eastern Railway Company and Danish Royal Mail steamers of the Forenade Line of Copenhagen by which these vessels convey passengers three times per week between Harwich and Esbjerg. The Great Eastern Railway Company also maintains a fleet of fast and powerful steamers for their Anglo-Continental mail and passenger business. This was started in 1863, when the company chartered two steamers for carrying goods between Harwich and Rotterdam. This service was made a biweekly one in 1864, and a similar service was also run to and from Antwerp. The company then introduced four new steamers specially built for the trade and conveying both passengers and cargo. In 1882, owing to the development of the traffic, the Harwich services to and from Rotterdam and Antwerp were extended to every week day. [Illustration: THE R.M. TURBINE STEAMER “COPENHAGEN” (G.E. RAILWAY).] The Hook of Holland quay at the mouth of the River Maas was finished in June 1893 and the company’s steamers began to call there. This greatly accelerated the service to Berlin and other parts of North Germany and a daily service was then started. In the same year the company acquired larger steamers for this service. A new railway line round Rotterdam was opened in May 1899 which shortened the journey to Berlin; and in May 1903 an express train was run between the Hook of Holland and Berlin in connection with the steamers. Since the opening of this route the passenger traffic has trebled. The company now have a fleet of eleven fast and powerful turbine and twin-screw steamers, all of which are fitted with apparatus for wireless telegraphy and submarine signalling. The latest addition is the Royal Mail turbine steamer _Copenhagen_, with a speed of 20 knots, on the Harwich-Hook of Holland route. In her passenger accommodation she has many features of the latest type of Atlantic liner. GREAT CENTRAL RLY. CO.