From The Cliffs.

[Todd]

This reads really well to me. Some comments for you:

The mainsail died, they heard it rip--I like the personification of the mainsail, and the introduction of sound
dread ran like scurvy through the ship.--appropriate nautical simile, and good use taking the abstraction of dread and making it more concrete through a linked image
They cut the rope that held the cloth
and dropped the tatters to the froth;--Nothing seems forced. I really like cloth and froth, and that the narrative has momentum. "dropped the tatters to the froth" is nice phrasing.
all white and roaring o'er the deck,
a misplaced foot would break a neck.--Break a neck flirts a little bit with cliche. On par with shoot your eye out. Its right on the edge for me. I can live with it because the danger of the situation doesn't make the rhyme seem forced

The anchor lost, the boat's heart broke--same with heart broke though I do like the personification. Again Billy, if there were a good substitute for both of those parts that stayed away from predictable phrasing it would be better. That said, it isn't bad. I hope I'm being clear in the distinction
upon the granite, splintered oak.--like this
Some jumped too late, some leapt too soon
their buckled bodies bent and strewn--these two lines were really nice. You can see people trying to time salvation in the midst of disaster. I really like the candance of the jumped/leapt line
across the knife edged rocks they lay--knife edged should have a hyphen. I think in this construction (grammarians please correct me here) if the words are used as a noun there is no hyphen when they are an adjective the hyphen goes in. That said, it is a brilliant adjective for how it interacts with the final line. These last two lines are my favorite and I owe it to the setup of knife-edged
all cut and bloodied in the spray.--In the spray is perfect to help us see the blood of the crash, and the blood of a metaphoric knife fight.

I thought this was clean, smooth, and really well done.

Thanks Billy.

Best,

Todd