An important factor to keep in mind (though certainly not the only one) is the fact that you're going to be doing some fighting in and even underwater. It probably wouldn't hurt to familiarize yourself with the rules and keep an eye on that when devising your characters - to that end, Snake Style's ability to deal piercing damage would be useful.
Monks can be tricky characters to build without some experience - definitely a class I would want to try and pre-plan as much as possible. To be honest, looking at your party (if party needs matter) what you need is a tank-type character to hold the line while your spell-casters work their magic.
For versimilitude's sake, we stayed away from any heavy armor-type characters, but the martials in our group were a human rogue and a very well crafted Human Barbarian (Invulnerable Rager & Urban Barbarian). That Human Barbarian was a penultimate tank-type character and could probably be very easily adapted to suit a Dwarf. Let me know if interested and I'll look at the build for you.
Crane and Snake styles would certainly be a good choice for your first two styles. The added defense is critical, especially since you are going to be the primary tank. With your 18 strength, I would also look to add in Dragon Style when you can fuse your 3rd style together as the added damage will be good (especially when combined with Snake and Crane's added attacks).
I would look into possibly dropping your Cha and Int another point and using that to boost Dex up to 15, then bumping Dex at level 4. The bonus to AC will be greatly appreciated and then you can also help yourself out with Combat Reflexes. Since you are likely to have a good Wisdom (Headband of Wisdom is a must for a monk) I would also recommend you boost Perception as much as possible. I would probably use it in place of Intimidate, but that's just my personal preference. You shouldn't need more than a couple points in Climb either and you can use the rest for Stealth for those times when you get off the ship (though admittedly I am not familiar enough with S&S to know how often that will crop up).
Your biggest problem as a monk is likely to be that you are going to be called upon to be the main tank and yet you'll have to sacrifice either (and possibly both) defense or hit points due to the MADness inherent in monks. I do think though that you can play a high str monk, just be ready to go down a lot those first few levels. By level 4 you should be able to survive fairly well when you combine the Styles with hit dice.
Finally, it might also be worth looking into the Brawler Archetype. You could either dip into it for 3 or 4 levels for bonus feats and a nice boost to hit and damage, or you can do the reverse and dip into Monk Master of Many Styles for 2 levels to get the style feats.
Oh ok thanks. I just looked up the underwater combat table and ouch. No wonder you said piercing would help. And looks like I'll be relying on swim checks if it really comes to that. Fortunately I'm using classes dependant on strength and taking the skill so it should help a bit, I hope.
I'm actually hoping that these two can tank somewhat. I think the monk will have at least 17 (if I take dodge?) and 19 if he fights defensively. The fighter on the other hand since losing heavy armor proficiency will be stuck with medium armor. Still not too bad I guess especially with armor training coming in soon.
I just checked Dragon style and I don't really get it. With 18 strength would a hit be effectively 1d6+6 as an example?
Also I'm a little afraid about dropping charisma even more. 6 is already living dangerously in case of ability damage/drain :( I was actually also considering not taking intimidate entirely but the S&S players guide recommended we take at least 1 charisma based skill. I guess since we have a bard and oracle I won't really need it with the -2.
By brawler do you mean the fighter archetype? I'm actually trying to play a pure monk so I don't think I would be able to do that. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Also anyone got any suggestions for the fighter as well?
Keep in mind too that if you take Acrobatics, you'll eventually get bigger boosts to fighting defensively, but your to-hit will already suffer from being a monk with 3/4 BAB.
As for Dragon Style, you essentially have it correct. The first feat gives you 1.5 Str bonus for the first hit in a round. The second feat gives you that bonus for all hits. Even bigger though, considering where you are likely to be fighting, is that Dragon Style lets you charge through difficult terrain as well as through your allies. That's come in handy many times with my monk.