The secret gift ousted Disney CEO Bob Chapek gave Bob Iger for his $45 million sailboat

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In the ruthless world of big business ripe with big egos, a touching gift from an underling to the CEO could easily be forgotten about.

Just ask now ousted Disney ( DIS ) CEO Bob Chapek. He gave his then-boss Bob Iger a gold coin for the $45 million luxury sailboat he was building at the time. There was a good deal of thought put into the gift, Chapek says, despite Iger reportedly making his successor's job a nightmare.

"This was his going-away present. He actually brought me up to Northern Europe to see his boat being built. And I learned about the mast stepping process, where, before you put that big old mast in a sailboat at the bottom, you put a coin that never gets released. And I just thought that because he had shared that with me back when times were a little better [I would get him the coin]," Chapek said in a new episode of the Power Players with Brian Sozzi podcast on Yahoo Finance (video above; listen in below).

He added, "I just thought it was right, even though I was being abused, you know, disrespected. I'm like you know what? Let's do the right thing. I have no idea if he actually used it or not."

Chapek, whose just-released memoir, "Behind the Castle Walls," chronicles his ascent and downfall at Disney, spent nearly three decades at the entertainment giant. He rose from the company's home-video division to lead consumer products and ultimately Disney's massive parks, experiences and products business before succeeding Bob Iger as CEO in February 2020.

He took the top job just as the COVID-19 pandemic slammed Disney's theme parks, movie theaters, and other businesses. At the same time, he pushed a major reorganization and continued the company's aggressive expansion into streaming.

Chapek's tenure became increasingly contentious amid clashes over talent relations and with Iger, then executive chair at Disney.

Despite Disney's board unanimously extending Chapek's contract for three years in June 2022, the board removed him just five months later, on Nov. 20, 2022, and brought Iger back as CEO.

Chapek said he was compelled to write the book to regain control over the narrative about his time at Disney, which he feels Iger badly tarnished.

"It's like I didn't exist," Chapek said about being scrubbed from the company's history books and in its parks.

Iger's boat has since been delivered. It's unclear if Chapek's gold coin made it to the bottom of the mast.