The first sentence may be technically correct, but it is not something that an English speaker would be likely to say. I would simply say "The thrown knife struck the tree". The second sentence would be clearer if the past participle of "sink" was replaced with the past conjugation, "sank": "After the ship sank, all of the passengers struck out for the shore." The meaning behind both sentences is strange. Both sentences imply that passengers on a boat waited to watch their own boat sink, and then the passengers (who were presumably in the water at this point) decided to swim to the shore.

The first sentence should be on of the following: 1) "The thrown knife struck the tree." or 2) "The thrown knife struck the tree." Note that these two sentences have different meanings. Your other sentence is probably grammatically correct, but would sound much better as: "After the ship was sunk, all of it's passengers struck out for the shore." or "After the ship was sunk, all of the passengers struck out for the shore."