Great Eastern Railway - East Coast Continental Services From Harwich

Harwich had been used for passenger and freight sailings to the Continent since the thirteenth century, and mail packets began running to Holland in 1661. They sailed from a quay just west of the Navyard, and connected with coaches for London. The mails had previously run from Folkestone in Kent, and they reverted to that county when transferred to Dover in 1836.

The railway reached Harwich in 1854, and the tracks ran beyond the current Harwich Town station to the waterfront, where a new Town Pier had been built in 1851. The port was in decline at this time, with much traffic diverting to new installations at Ipswich and Lowestoft, whilst the mail packets had moved to Dover in 1836. The Great Eastern Railway (GER) obtained powers to run steamships in 1862, and connecting services began the following year, using chartered tonnage. The GER built a new Continental Pier at the end of the railway tracks, and used their own ships from 1865, sailing to Rotterdam and Antwerp. The Great Eastern Hotel was built across the road. This later served as the town hall, and is now private flats. Unfortunately the GER regularly found itself in dispute with Harwich Corporation, due to the limited quay space, and so between 1879 and 1883 a vast reclamation project was undertaken a mile and a half further west, outside the jurisdiction of the local council. This was opened as Parkeston Quay, named after the GER chairman Charles Parkes. The railway was diverted onto a new loop round to the new quay, where a station, hotel and goods yard were laid out. A small township, also known as Parkeston, was built for the railway and port workers.

The first Great Eastern Railway (GER) steamers were the paddle steamers Avalon (1) and Zealous. These were replaced just a year later with Avalon (2) and Ravensbury which were 670grt. The Richard Young joined them in 1871. She was the first ship to arrive in Rotterdam via the New Waterway. The John Elder-built Claud Hamilton of nearly 1000grt joined the GER in 1875, setting new standards on the service. She was followed by the paddle steamers Princess of Wales (1878, 1098grt), Lady Tyler (1880, 995 grt) and Adelaide (1880, 969grt).

The first screw steamers were the Ipswich and Norwich delivered in 1883 from Earle's Shipbuilding of Hull. In the same year Parkeston Quay opened. These were iron steamers powered by twin 2-cylinder compound engines giving a combined 2000ihp.