Before they entered the ship for the voyage to the New World, Nephi’s family knew that the finished ship was “good,” and that the “workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine” (1 Nephi 18:4). According to Potter and Wellington, this implies that they had already conducted successful sea trials. Otherwise how could they have judged the ship’s workmanship unless they saw that the hull was sound and watertight, that the ship rested properly and equally balanced int he water, and that she handled well in various seas? Tim Severin, an experience captain, recruited eight Omani professional sailors as the core of the crew of the Sohar. Still, he conducted sea trials to adjust the ship and train the crew. Without sea trials, the words “good ship” would have been as meaningless as saying a “good” airplane before seeing if it could takeoff, fly and land in one piece. [George Potter & Richard Wellington, Discovering The Lehi-Nephi Trail, Unpublished Manuscript (July 2000), p. 211]