Historical information: Nephi's description of being driven before the wind fits with the proposed departure in the monsoon season, as do the subsequent descriptions of the powerful storm in the next few verses.
Scriptural information: Nephi continues to set up the powerful tensions of his story. He has told of a rebellious Laman and Lemuel, and of a repentant and humbled Laman and Lemuel. It was the latter who entered the ship. Nevertheless, as all appears to go well, as the crisis of daily relying upon the obvious intervention of the Lord faded, Laman and Lemuel forgot the Lord, forgot "by what power they had been brought thither." Their rudeness is the first sign that they are losing the humility with which they began the journey.