Page:Jack Heaton, Wireless Operator (Collins, 1919).djvu/185

 thought, for our Navy to salute in turn. Huerta was informed that this was always the custom when salutes of this kind were fired and that our Navy would, of course, return it.

We learned by wireless the next day that Huerta had again flopped over and he now wanted the salute to be fired gun for gun, that is, his army would fire the first gun, then our fleet would fire the next one and so on. Not only this but he wanted President Wilson to sign some kind of a paper and tied the whole proceedings in a hard knot with a lot of other strings. These conditions which Huerta wanted to impose President Wilson would not agree to and there was nothing else left for him to do but to back the ultimatum on the day he said he would.

On the way down I had plenty of time to look over the Alabama, to get acquainted with the men and to get my bearings. I can’t tell you here the little things that happened on board but I must say a word about the Alabama.

The battleship, in her day, was the giant of all the sea-fighting craft and her armor, that is, the steel covering that protects her, is a great piece of work. First of all the whole main deck