this left us with the alternative strategies of interviewing the captive seamen in the hold , discovering whether any of them could sail the ship , and if so , offering such inducements in the way of violence or gold as might compel him to do so , or sailing within sight of land and hugging the coast , which was slower , much more dangerous in terms of encountering either sandbanks or british men of war , and uncertain , insofar as none of the teal hands presently with us had ever seen the port of new haven before .