What exactly happens when your ship sinks? I know that when you die you a placed aboard the "Ferry of the Damned" and are forced to stay there for an allotted amount of time until you are returned to your ship. However, what about when the battle is over and you have lost your ship to the depths. Do the ships just respawn? Will there be an implementation of a gold payment to buy your own ship? Will you be forced to matchmake or play with a captain who own his own ship until you have earned enough to leave and purchase your own? I personally like the idea of having to start as a crewmember of another captains ship until you save up enough gold to get your own "Black Pearl" and I believe there would be no incentive to work towards anything if losing your precious ship just meant that you respawn at the nearest outpost with a brand new, fully outfitted, vessel.
Also, Why not make it possible to steal an enemy ship (Almost like a capture the base idea). As an example have a weapon that knocks players out, such as a club, (make it take more hits to do so, of course) and when knocked out players stay unconscious for an allotted amount of time. during this time they can be carried to the brig of the enemy ship (like carrying a chest) and must be rescued by their crew before being returned to an outpost and sold (kinda like chests). (Of course there would be a time limit on holding players in the brig, or give them a means to escape so they must be guarded, so it is not abused). If a player is sold then they are returned to the ship they were captured from and the enemies that sold them get a specific amount of money tied to what evil deeds that pirate had committed, ex. robbery and murder. Also if an entire crew is captured then the enemy can return the entire crew AND their ship for an even greater sum of gold! I believe this would add a great "bounty hunter" style of gameplay and would make raiding high priority players worthwhile in the sense of a bigger risk = bigger reward mechanic!
