Samuel Gilbert Scott

Samuel Gilbert Scott (c. 1813[1] – January 11, 1841) was an American daredevil who was killed performing a stunt at Waterloo Bridge in London, England.

In Cornwall, Scott allegedly jumped from a 240-foot (73 m) cliff into 8 feet (2.4 m) of water; this achievement exceeds the current world record high dive, and is also considered unlikely.

[2][3] Performances in England continued in 1838, including a 60-foot (18 m) leap from the topmast of a barque into the docks at Gloucester in early October, and a promised jump from a 100-foot (30 m) scaffold into a pond at the Pittville Hotel in Cheltenham.

According to a contemporary broadside, Scott "was immediately taken to Charing Cross Hospital,[7] where every attention was paid to him, but unfortunately without effect, as life was quite extinct.

In Carlyle's words: A wretched mortal that was wont to leap from top masts, bridges &c, and dive and do feats of that kind, perished in a shocking manner (as you will see by that Newspaper) here this week.

[9]The case is further mentioned in Alfred Swaine Taylor's Manual of Medical Jurisprudence, 6th American edition (Philadelphia 1866), p. 339, albeit giving a wrong year: The death of Scott, the American diver, in January, 1840, shows how readily asphyxia may be induced by a slight compression of the throat, even when a person might be supposed to have both the knowledge and the power to save himself ... No attempt was made to save him until it was too late, and he was not brought to a hospital until thirty-three minutes had elapsed.