Pall Mall Budget article on William Buckels

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 Biervliet is a small city in the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is a part of the municipality of Terneuzen, and lies about 16 km South of Vlissingen. Biervliet received city rights in 1183. It was originally a fishing village which specialised ...

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

, whose discovery of

gibbing Gibbing is the process of preparing salt herring (or soused herring), in which the gills and part of the gullet are removed from the fish, eliminating any bitter taste. The liver and pancreas are left in the fish during the salt-curing process ...

, a preservation process for

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

, led to the Dutch becoming a maritime power. Buckels has been recognized as a Dutch National Hero for his accomplishment from that day on. Now called Willem Bueckelszoon by the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, on September 9, 1886 the ''

Pall Mall Budget The ''Pall Mall Budget'' was a weekly magazine published in London from 1868 until 1920. It was a weekly digest of articles from evening newspaper ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' (1865 to 1923). The ''Pall Mall Budget'' was re-launched in 1893 by Will ...

'' featured an article (''pictured at right'') marking the 500th Anniversary (fifth centenary) of William Buckels' discovery that "salt fish will keep, and that fish that can be kept can be packed and can be exported". It was reprinted in ''The New York Times'' later that month. In 1386 William Buckels salted and packed (into barrels) the first hundred herring ultimately leading to Holland's monopoly in a new market which was subsequently created by Buckels' discovery. Holland and especially

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, said to be "built on Herring bones", reaped great wealth from its herring fishery in subsequent years, made possible by its ability to preserve fish through Buckel's process. Konvoi Haringvloot

The process that Buckels discovered (and is accredited with the invention of) is known as 'gibbing'. The

gills A gill () is a respiratory organ that many aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow respiration on land provided they are ...

and part of the

gullet The esophagus (American English) or oesophagus (British English; both ), non-technically known also as the food pipe or gullet, is an organ in vertebrates through which food passes, aided by peristaltic contractions, from the pharynx to the ...

of the fish are removed eliminating any bitter taste, and the

liver The liver is a major Organ (anatomy), organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for ...

and

pancreas The pancreas is an organ of the digestive system and endocrine system of vertebrates. In humans, it is located in the abdomen behind the stomach and functions as a gland. The pancreas is a mixed or heterocrine gland, i.e. it has both an end ...

are left in the fish during salt-curing, releasing enzymes that flavour the fish. After the fish is initially prepared by gill and gullet removal, it is put into barrels for curing with a 1:20 ratio of salt to herring. Following his discovery, the Dutch began to build ships to transport salted herring to export markets, which eventually led to becoming a seafaring nation. In the 1807 work ''The Naturalist's Cabinet'', the author identifies Buckels' name as the

etymological Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words and ...

source of the English word ''pickle''. However, the Oxford English Dictionary provides "Middle Dutch ''pēkel'', ''pēkele'', (Dutch ''pekel'')" and other language

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

s, and does not mention Buckels. The ending ''-sz'' in Beuckelsz is a patronimic, meaning 'son of Beuckel'.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckels, William 14th-century introductions 14th-century people of the Holy Roman Empire Dutch fishers 14th-century inventors People from Terneuzen