Sailors putting the end of the sheet overboard will bring wind. Hitting it three times across the thwart stops the wind.
Topsail Bay, N. F.

Sailors putting the end of the sheet overboard will bring wind. Hitting it three times across the thwart stops the wind.
Source: Current Superstitions (1896), entry 1067.
Fanny D. Bergen, editor.
Modern normalized navigation; the historical attribution above remains unchanged.