Like many other vessels in the navy, the Olympia has a complete
printing outfit on board, and issues, at intervals, a very creditable
sheet called the "Bounding Billow." This is its account of a Spanish
shot:

"One shot struck the Baltimore in the starboard waist, just abaft one
of the six-inch guns. It passed through the hammock nettings, exploded
a couple of three-pounder shells, wounding six men, then across the
deck, striking the cylinder of a gun, making it temporarily useless,
then running around the shield it spent itself between two
ventilators, just forward of the engine-room hatch. The shell is in
possession of the captain."

[Illustration: Strange course of a Spanish Shell.]

When the news of the glorious victory in Manila Bay reached the United
States, the people went wild with joy. Commodore Dewey was thanked by
Congress, and afterwards was made a rear-admiral. In December,
Congress revived the grade and rank of admiral and conferred it upon
Rear-Admiral Dewey, and he and all of his men were presented with
medals of honor made expressly for the purpose. The raising of Admiral
Dewey's new flag on the Olympia was an interesting ceremony. As the
blue bunting with its four white stars fluttered to the peak of the
flagship, the crews of all the vessels in the fleet were at quarters;
the officers in full dress for the occasion. The marines paraded; the
drums gave four "ruffles" as the Admiral stepped upon the deck; the
Olympiads band struck up "Hail to the Chief," and an admiral's salute
of seventeen guns echoed across Manila Bay from every American ship;
followed by salutes of the same number of guns from each foreign war
vessel in the harbor.