Daniel Defoe: the original Anglofuturist

Daniel Defoe: the original Anglofuturist

He noticed, first, the neatness, the way sails and cannons and half pikes all had their own set place. The timberyards and mastyards did too, guarded by watchmen and storekeepers, each in “the utmost hurry” yet unerring in his work. It was, he said, like a “well-ordered city” — one which could rig and launch a ship of the line in a matter of hours. For as Daniel Defoe explains, this is Chatham, the chief arsenal of the Royal Navy and the largest