I'm deeply disappointed you didn't take the chance to go with "Ditch the caves, hit the waves!"

I have issue with almost all of your points.

• Dex & wisdom would be the important stats for sailors IMO (i am not saying strength and con are useless, but just not as important, they would be 3rd and 4th IMO).
• Darkvision wouldn't do a damn thing, its range would barely get off the side of the boat.
• Poison resistance is not disease resistance.
• Some spoiled food would be poison, but some would also be disease (depends on how it spoiled and the food).
• In order for short stature to be relevant to ship design, they would need a completely custom designed ship tailor made for them, which would have benifits but sounds unlikely for what pirates would be sailing. (That being said, a dwarven merchant ship designed speciifcally for their stature would be a massive pain for normal height characters to battle on)
• lower speed means they swim slower too which means going overboard is even worse.

EDIT: dwarven submarines!

• short stature actually hugely relevant as submarines are notoriously cramped
• darkvision means no need for lights in the sub, beneficial for multiple (admittedly somewhat minor) reasons.
• honestly no clue what stats would be important for a sub, no argument here
• toxic gasses less of a problem thanks to poison resistance
• Dont even need to go to the surface, a fully underwater submarine port could be connected to existing dwarven settlements near the ocean with the correct design and planning.
• Also benefits from legendary dwarven engineering.

Darkvision limited to 60ft. Nighttime navigation was based on stars.

A ship can barely contain enough ale to last a dwarf a month, let alone an entire crew...

Having lived on a boat for years, I can tell you right now, you show me a body building midget, and I'll show you an amazing marine mechanic.

Marcus Miles has entered the chat.

Splittermond, a German RPG, has a culture of arctic viking dwarves. It's perfect.

I am a dwarf and I'm sailing a ship

Saily saily ship

Saily saily ship

One of my favorite campaigns I was a tempest cleric dwarf in a sea campaign. She came from a clan of dwarves that would take longboats along river coasts downstream from a mother clan's mountain mining to find pockets of washed down minerals. It was so fun and eventually she started her own seafaring clan the Sundersalt. We were based on an island but controlled a lot of trade in the area with ships modeled after Korean turtle ships

Ran a Pirate campaign once. Had a pirate faction of Dwarfs called the Reefbeards.

They lived up, under and along the water for so long, they had colorful corals growing in their beards.

They also had a lot of cool technology, so they shot grapplehooks to swing over and ran around with entire cannons on their back.

They aren't very buoyant though, are they? What happens when one falls overboard?

Can dwarves survive such prolonged periods so far removed from rock, stone, and dirt?

The copper dwarves are excellent sailors.

What is this, dwarves for giants? Those fuckers are at least 5m tall, goddamn.

I would say dexterity isn't such a bad stat while moving on the masts or wet planks. and since they can see in the dark too, and further because they are much larger, elves win again -.-

Saily saily ship

Ah like in Warcraft 2 you can have submarines with dwarves

THANKS I NEEDED THIS

My previous character was a Dwarf Marine (barbarian, path of the ancestral guardian). He was wielding an anchor as a 2-handed weapon.

He met his fate killing a sub-boss. (that is: a boss that came from the sea floor, the captain of a submersible galleon)

Craftsmanship is also highly valued on a boat...

"The Boat Ramp of Durin, Lord of Mooria. Speak, matey, and enter. I, Narvi, made it."