Like the
Zwergpiraten (dwarf pirates) from Walter Moers'
die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt'n Blaubär...
'The dwarf pirates were the rulers of the Zamonian Ocean. But no one knew this because they were so small that no one noticed them. No wave was too high for the dwarf pirates, no storm so violent and no wind high enough to deter them. They were the boldest of all seafarers and constantly looked for challenges to their nautical competence, especially in the rage and fury of storms and other natural hazards.
They alone, because of their unusual seamen's abilities, were able to survive the awesome maelstroms.
And so it came to pass one day, that they found themselves in great danger because of their adventure-lust and stubbornness. While studying the water's surface for wave-tunnels and currents, their lookout, high up the mast in the bosun's chair, noticed my ship just as I was about to disappear into a maelstrom. I was doubly lucky, for normal sized seamen probably had not seen me. They took me on board, wrapped me in an oilskin and tied me firmly to the main mast. At the time, this seemed strange to me, but it served my safety quite well.
They skittered up and down the masts like squirrels. They let out and then furled the sails with such speed that I became dizzy just watching them. They all threw themselves larboard as one man in order to counter-balance a huge dip into the waves, then just as quickly, to the starboard, and then forward and aft as well. They pumped water furiously, disappeared into the bowels of the ship to re-appear carrying buckets of water while jumping back and forth through hatches. They were in constant motion, swinging on the helm, screaming instructions to each other and hanging together on a huge sail in order to unfurl it more quickly - all the while, not missing a note as they continued singing their pirate songs. I can still remember that one of them nonchalantly scrubbed the decks during the tempest.
The sea flooded over the gunnels, capsizing the ship first to the larboard and then to the starboard, but the ship did not sink. For the first time in my life, I drank seawater and, to my surprise, it did not taste bad at all. We slid perilously through wave-tunnels, rode on powerful crests, were thrown high into the air and them forced deep under the surface. The pirate ship was tossed to and fro, slammed powerfully from all sides by the relentless waves, pushed and spit upon, but the dwarf pirates did not back down an inch! They screamed at the ocean, spit back with a vengeance and stabbed at the waves with their cargo hooks.'
(Found translated
here)