an old Dansker

'He was an old Dansker long anglicized in the service, of few words, many wrinkles and some honorable scars. His wizened face, time-tinted and water-stormed to the complexion of an antique parchment, was here and there peppered blue by the chance explosion of a gun-cartridge in action.'

'Herman Melville, from Billy Budd, 1924.