The African Lakes Company was also involved in water transport and operated a number of steamboats on Lake Nyasa and the Shire River down to the mouth of the Zambezi River at Chinde. The British concession at Chinde was leased from the Portuguese Government for 99 years from 1890 and became an ocean port served by Union-Castle Line and German East Africa Line ships until 1914, when services were suspended. A limited Union Castle service was resumed in 1918, but ceased in 1922, when a cyclone damaged the port. In 1897, African Lakes had a trading station at Chinde, at which passengers transferred to its fleet of around six small river steamers of up to 40 tons which took passengers and goods from there up the Zambezi and Shire River, along which it had other trading stations, to the British Central Africa Protectorate. It also had several trading stations around, and three lake steamers on, Lake Nyasa (the largest of 177 tons), a steamer and a large sailing boat on Lake Tanganyika and a small river steamer on the upper Shire. The development of the port of Beira, Mozambique, the construction of the Trans-Zambezi Railway towards Beira and a disastrous cyclone in 1922 which severely damaged Chinde sank brought most river traffic on the Zambezi to an end. The new Trans-Zambezi Railway Company took over the fleet of the African Lakes Company in 1923 and these vessels were used to ferry traffic across the Zambezi.