When a man was out of his senses, he was sometimes carried out in a boat, and a rope was put about his neck, and then he was thrown out into the sea, and drawn after the boat, to see if he would come to himself. They thought that people who would be frightened out of their senses, would be frightened into their senses again.
(source: artwork ‘Rowing Home’ by Winslow Homer; Manx Reminiscences by Dr. John Clague (1911))
