About 3 p.m. on August 19, 1958, Sandra Lane was picking berries on the southeast side of Whitehead Island, off St. George, when she noticed a small boat sailing down Muscle Ridge Channel toward the open ocean.

It was a cold August afternoon, with the tail end of a hurricane kicking up heavy seas. Sandra, wife of Whitehead Light keeper Russell Lane, wondered why the small boat was heading out to the open ocean in those conditions.

In the boat was a 20-year-old camp counselor from Ohio and four teenage campers headed to Tenants Harbor for the night, and eventually back to camp in Boothbay Harbor. They had left Camden that morning and they were taking on water. Having lost their bailing can, they were fighting a losing battle against heavy seas with their hands and a sponge.

South, southeast of Whitehead, a big wave swamped them and the boat foundered, settling bow up. Three of the five fell into the ocean while two hung onto the bow. In the cold water, the situation quickly went from dire to desperate.

Russell Lane Jr., the son of the Whitehead Light keeper, has made a movie about the events of that day entitled “Looking for a Hero.” He will show the film and give a short talk at Schooner Cove on Friday, Oct. 21 at 1:30 p.m. The movie won “Audience Favorite” at the International Maritime Film Festival in Bucksport this year. Both of his parents will attend the talk.

The rescue of the five young people by Russell Lane Sr. and lobsterman David Gamage, left long ripples behind it.

One of the rescued became a physician and researcher who received an award for his work for helping to develop vaccines that scientists believe will prevent thousands of deaths. Another joined the United States Air Force and flew transport planes out of Vietnam before becoming a lawyer. A third is an author, and a fourth a state supreme court justice. The fate of the fifth rescued camper, who was nearly unconscious when she was rescued, remains a mystery.

Russell Lane Jr. began the project to recognize his father’s role in the rescue. Since then it has become something more, a way to get to know his parents better and to help them reconnect with the people whose lives they touched more than a half-century ago.

“It became more and more … where are the kids, and are they OK?” said Russell Lane Jr. “It meant so much to (Russell Lane Sr.) to find out that they were doing OK.”

Russell Lane Sr. grew up in Pemaquid in a family of 14 and left school early to work. When he was of age, he joined the U.S. Navy, serving during the Korean War. During his service, the elder Lane saw his best friend swept overboard and drowned. That experience affected him deeply. Later, he hammered into his own son’s head the importance of being prepared for anything, of taking responsible for his “watch.”

An extremely humble man, the elder Lane never considered himself a role model for his own son.

“He always told me ‘Don’t be like me, go make something of yourself,’” said Russell Lane Jr. “He would preach that to me all the time.”

Growing up, however, his dad was his little league coach and his scoutmaster, the sort of person his children could always count on. “For somebody who told me ‘don’t be like him,’ everything he did made me want to be like him,’” remembered Russell Lane Jr.

For most of his life, however, Russell Lane Jr. took his father’s advice, serving in the Army rather than the Navy and building a career in aircraft maintenance, instead of working around boats.

About two decades ago, however, when he was working as a maintenance manager for a major airline and spending most of his time away from home, Russell Lane Jr. came home to visit his dad and go lobstering with him.

Working next to him, he noticed his father had dizzy spells and realized he needed his help. The decision to come home to Bristol and help his dad gave him the opportunity to be a better husband and a better father. He was able to spend more time with his children and take them lobstering, as his father had taken him.

Working on the film project, tracing his parents’ footsteps on that August afternoon when their lives intertwined with those of the five young people on the boat, brought him closer still, Russell Lane Jr. said.

“I have always respected and loved them, but I got to walk a mile in my father’s shoes and I got to see what my mother did,” he said.

To see the trailer for “Looking for a Hero,” go to: https://vimeo.com/123549556. For more information about the Oct. 21 talk, call Karen Westhaver at 563-4001. The talk and movie are free and open to the public but space is limited, so please RSVP.