I watched this film on a DVD that was rammed with short films from the period. I didn't watch all of them as the main problem with these type of things that their value is more in their historical novelty value rather than entertainment. So to watch them you do need to be put in the correct context so that you can keep this in mind and not watch it with modern eyes. With the Primitives & Pioneers DVD collection though you get nothing to help you out, literally the films are played one after the other (the main menu option is "play all") for several hours. With this it is hard to understand their relevance and as an educational tool it falls down as it leaves the viewer to fend for themselves, which I'm sure is fine for some viewers but certainly not the majority. What it means is that the DVD saves you searching the web for the films individually by putting them all in one place but that's about it.
At once this film is interesting but yet frustrating in seeing things being worked on that are now commonplace. The interesting aspect is the framing of the shot, which is reminiscent of a painting in the way it sets the foreground (the jetty) and a background (the sloping hill on the horizon). However as a film it has the boat moving through one towards the other, which is an interesting development that provides plenty to look at. The women on the pier are worth watching as is the boat, so the viewer is held by both.
However it was here that the film annoyed me by just "ending". I had expected the planned film to see the boat move out of shot around the jetty, which would be a logical end, leaving the viewer wit only the static fore and back grounds to contemplate. It did annoy that the film just stopped instead of ending. That said though, it is yet again interesting to watch as part of Lumière's development.
