Perhaps the most thrilling story that has come from among the rescued of the ill-fated Titanic was related by Mr Oscar Panquist [sic], a Swedish immigrant, who was bound for this city to his brother, Mr Andrew Panquist [sic], a carpenter, of 52 Buena Vista Avenue. Mr Oscar Panquist is now in New Haven, Conn., but his brother repeated the story in all its sensational details to the Herald reporter at his home, last night, as follows:

The doctor aboard the Carpathia, the rescue ship, told my brother that, but for his rugged physique, he would never have recovered from his terrible experience. Oscar was one of the last persons to leave the boat. When she was about 6 feet above the surface of the water, he decided to plunge into the sea.  He tied two lifebelts around his waist and jumped. He swam as far as he possibly could, from the sinking liner, knowing that the suction, as the boat went down, would make his chance of getting away from her very small, but he had hardly got more than 100 yards away from her when he heard an explosion, and it shook him up. Fortunately, the explosion caused the door of one of the staterooms to be carried within easy reach of Oscar and he seized it, using it for a life raft. On and on he manoeuvered until he got to one of the lifeboats. As he grasped the boat, a member of the crew who was manning the craft, took his oar and struck Oscar over the fingers until he had to let go. He was not the only one to be treated like this, because some of the boats had as many as they could safely carry and rather than take a chance of all going under because of too heavy a load, the crew invariably held off all who attempted to board the boats. Oscar had no complaint to make about the treatment. As he was about to draw away from the boat, a Swedish girl, whom Oscar had met on the Titanic, and whom he recognised in the lifeboat, took pity on him, and threw him one end of her shawl, while she held onto the other end. Oscar continued to hold onto the shore until the arrival of the Carpathia. His hand was frozen to the shore, and it was sometime after he was taken aboard the rescue ship that his hand was restored to its normal condition.

But the part of his experience that to him is of a character that will never be raised from his memory, is that the sacrifice made by the Swedish girl probably resulted in her death, because the shore was practically the only substantial thing she had to protect her from the elements, and the doctors aboard. The Carpathia said that she had died from exposure. Oscar did not know her by name and had met her for the first time on the boat. The fate of the poor girl has disturbed him more than his own suffering.

Oscar was in the freezing waters for about five hours, and his body from his shoulders down was half frozen when they took him out. He could hardly speak, and the doctors say he may never fully recover from the experience