Several weeks after the Battle of Manila Bay, Charles Gridley was sent home. One crewman described what happened:
"He came up out of his cabin dressed in civilian clothes and was met by the rear admiral (Dewey) who extended him a most cordial hand. A look of troubled disappointment flitted across the captain's brow, but vanished when he stepped to the head of the gangway and, looking over, saw not the launch, but a twelve-oared cutter manned entirely by the officers of the Olympia.
"There were men in the boat who had not pulled a stroke for a quarter of a century. Old Glory was at the stern and a captain's silken coach-whip at the bow; and when Captain Gridley, beloved alike by officers and men, entered the boat, it was up oars, and all that, just as though they were common sailors who were to row him to the Zafiro.
"When he sat down upon the handsome boat-cloth that was spread for him, he bowed his head, and his hands hid his face as Lieutenant Reese, acting coxswain. ordered, 'Shoveoff; out oars; give away!'
"Later in the day, the lookout on the bridge reported, 'Zafiro under way sir,' and the deck officer passed on the word until a little twitter from Pat Murray's pipe brought all of the other bo's'ns around him, and in concert they sang out, 'Stand by to man the rigging!' Not the Olympia alone, but every ship in the squadron dressed and manned, and the last we ever saw of our dear captain he was sitting in a chair out on the Zafiro's quarter-deck, apparently listening to the [Olympia's] old band play."
--Old B-Runner
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