As far back as 1820 there was launched at Bombay the first steamer built in India; she was intended for service on the River Indus. Her engines were designed by a Parsee. She must have been a familiar object to many hundreds of Anglo-Indians during her long career. She was only broken up as recently as 1880, and her end came not through weakness but through her supersession by more modern and commodious boats. There is a custom peculiar to Bombay, and stated to be of Parsee origin,[80] of driving a silver spike into the stern of a vessel at its launch. This is said to be analogous to the placing of coins under the foundation-stone. The ceremony was observed at the launching of a paddle-steamer at Bombay in 1875, when a nail some seven inches in length and three-quarters of an inch in diameter was used, but whether such a ceremony took place at the launch in 1820 is not recorded. If it is a Parsee ceremony, however, it is quite likely to have been observed, for the East clings faithfully to its traditions. [80] _Notes and Queries._ A paddle-wheel steamer built in 1859 for service on the Indus had a draught of only 20 inches. The hull was a frameless cellular raft, but the walls of the deck cabin were worked into the depth of the vessel, which was thus made a girder 200 feet in length, and by this contrivance the engine and boilers, weighing 150 tons, were supported. A couple of plate girders having a run of 115 feet were included in her middle length. These were 15 feet deep and formed the sides of the cabins, and they also projected under the deck for a distance of 35 feet. The hull of the vessel was practically a long, flat, shallow box; the stern was rounded and the keel was turned up about 2 feet to allow of the water rising easily. The bow was rather fine and designed on the wave-line principle. The engines were of 688 horse-power and the boilers had a pressure of 25 lb. The paddle-wheels were 14¹⁄₄ feet in diameter. Her load displacement was 331 tons and her draught when laden was only 24 inches.