THE intrepid Salt family of Blackburn set sail for a new life in America -- and not even a German U-boat was going to stop them!

For just weeks before this picture was taken in 1914, Sarah Salt and her children had survived a torpedo attack in the Atlantic.

Despite having to be rescued from their lifeboat by a British cruiser, they were determined to join the rest of their family who had already gone ahead to New Bedford, Massachusetts. The photograph has been sent to Looking Back by Sarah's granddaughter, 77-year-old Milly Spellman, of Blackburn, and it shows her sitting on deck on the second voyage with 15-year-old Alice, at the back, Florence and Mona and son John.

Two older sons, Frank and Jim, and their father, Jack, had left their home in Pickup Street some months earlier, before calling for the others to join them.

One son, who couldn't go, however, was Milly's father, Walter, who had been refused entry because he wore a leg calliper.

Said Milly: "The ship went down in seven minutes after being hit, but my grandmother, and the children luckily made it into a lifeboat. With more than 50 others they drifted in the open sea for more than five hours, with the U-boat circling, before help came.

"I think it was very brave of them to go straight back again after being torpedoed, close to where the Lusitania went down the following year, although I believe Alice admitted to being nervous. My grandmother told her to bite on her handkerchief, because they were going and that was that."

The decision to move to America came after Jack had lost his foundry job at Foster, Yates and Thom.

Said Milly: "They wouldn't employ people with grey hair and I know my grandfather used to cover his with soot before being found out."