Seine River Steamers early vessels meant that positive traction by pulling on a chain against a deadman or anchor was much more effective. In the 1830s river travel was considered dangerous, so much so that insurers would put a 25 percent premium on cargoes and vessels travelling the route. The Seine is divided into three sections, the lower or Oise section, middle or Paris Section, and upper or Marne section. Ships enter the river at Le Havre through a bad tidal bore. (Victor Hugo's favourite daughter was killed while travelling in a small boat across the bore.) Oceangoing ships can travel to Rouen,
Seine River Steamers the city each year their cargo of cereals, coal, and building materials. Factories were constructed and products as diverse as sugar and boots were produced. During the Paris Commune bloodshed was so bad that the Seine ran red with blood. Traffic on the Seine entered into consciousness in a different way too—the Pre-Impressionist and impressionist painters would paint the River scenes from the Pont Neuf, to Argenteuil. And so we are left with colourful and sometimes cubist, copies of age old scenes. In 1867, the year of an exposition, another famed Paris institution came into being—that of the Bateau Mouche.