Sir William Rule ( - 1816) was a shipbuilder and designer to the Royal Navy who rose to be Surveyor of the Navy.
Designing during the Napoleonic Wars, many of his ships took place in the critical battles: Nile, Trafalgar, Copenhagen, etc.
He was born in south England around 1750.
He first appears in Royal Navy records in April 1778 as a master mastmaker at Woolwich Dockyard; however, this position infers both an apprenticeship as a ship's carpenter and a period in the dockyards as a standard mastmaker. In September 1778 he was promoted to master boatbuilder at Portsmouth Dockyard.[1]
In February 1779 he moved to Sheerness Dockyard, first as master shipwright then as master caulker. By 1787 he was assistant master shipwright at Portsmouth Dockyard, and in March of that year was appointed master shipwright back at Sheerness Dockyard, thereafter having overall charge of all ships constructed there, and from this point the Royal Navy list the ships built under his charge.[2]
In August 1790 he moved to Woolwich as master shipwright, and in February 1793 he was appointed Surveyor of the Navy, working alongside Sir John Henslow. In June 1806 Henslow retired and from then Rule worked with Henry Peake.[3]
In June 1813 Rule was replaced as Surveyor of the Navy by Joseph Tucker and Robert Seppings (jointly) apparently due to Rule's ill-health.[4]
Rule died in 1816, his will being read on 29 February 1816. The will is held at the National Archives in Kew.[5]
Note: dates in brackets represent date of design not launch)