Ok, age of sail ships actually rarely sank. They normally surrendered.
I think in Naval Action there should be more than one way to "die" as it were.
1. Sink. Ok, they do sometimes sink. I don't see any reason to actually remove that.
2. Burn. The ship catches fire and burns for a while, THEN sinks.
3. Explode. Some sort of accidental fire reaches into the powder magazine, and the thing explodes.
4. Capsize. Just another sinking animation, just roll over first, then sinks.
5. Strike colors. The crew gives up, put's up the white flag.
I also think it would be nice to see more animation for the "death" of a ship and have crewmen jump overboard into the ocean, or even just some rowboats floating away from the ship. From what I have seen there just isn't enough distinction between a ship in action and one that is "dead".