Seine River Steamers The Élise was the first steam ship to cross the English Channel. She was bought in England 1814 by Pierre Andriel as" Margery", and renamed "Élise". Andriel intended to accomplish a spectacular crossing of the Channel to convince public opinion that steam ships could be ocean-worthy. She sailed up the Seine and arrived in Paris on 28 March, becoming a popular sensation. Two small saluting guns were mounted at the bow and fired in honour of Louis XVIII Early tugs used chains in the river to tow trains of barges up river. The low steam pressure and low power of
Seine siege towers and sacked Paris. On 25 November, 885, another Viking expedition led by Rollo was sent up the River Seine to attack Paris again. In March, 1314, King Philip IV of France had Jacques de Molay, last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, burned on a scaffold on an island in the River Seine in front of Notre Dame de Paris. After the burning at the stake of Joan of Arc in 1431, her ashes were thrown into the Seine from the medieval stone Mathilde Bridge at Rouen, though unserious counter-claims persist. According to his will, Napoleon, who died