William Buckels, also known as Willem Beuckel, Willem Beuckelsz or William Buckelsson, and sometimes Willem Beuckelszoon by the Dutch, was a 14th-century fisherman from Biervliet, Zeeland, whose discovery of gibbing, a preservation process for herring, led to the Dutch becoming a maritime power. Following his discovery, the Dutch began to build ships to transport salted herring to export markets, which eventually led to becoming a seafaring nation. The ending -sz in Beuckelsz is a patronimic, meaning 'son of Beuckel'.