Good question. I'm not an authority on this but I suspect that in the days of the early schooners that had three sails, a mainsail, foresail and one jib (See the sail plan of the pinky schooner "Fame" or the schooner yacht "America"), if the sheets (the lines controlling the sails) were not tended, or left flying in the wind, the vessel would lie usually "beam to" and wallow out of control in a seaway, much like a drunkard staggering down the street.