Halkett boat

Halkett had long been interested in the difficulties of travelling in the Canadian Arctic, and the problems involved in designing boats light enough to be carried over arduous terrain, but robust enough to be used in extreme weather conditions.

Although widely praised by Canadian explorers, Halkett's designs had a limited market, and he was unable to persuade the Royal Navy that they would serve any useful purpose in general naval service.

[2] Franklin's three-year exploration of the northern coast of Canada in search of the Northwest Passage had ended in disaster amid accusations of murder and cannibalism, with 11 of the 20 members of the group killed and the survivors reduced to eating lichen, their own boots, and the remains of rotten carcasses abandoned by wolves.

[3] The party had become stranded on the wrong side of the Coppermine River after their boats had been destroyed in a storm; John Richardson had attempted to swim to safety and suffered severe hypothermia.

[5] Halkett was an amateur inventor, and during his spare time whilst serving in the navy he worked on solving the problem of how to design a boat that would be small and light enough to transport easily on foot through wilderness, but robust enough to carry people in safety across wide bodies of water.

[2] Halkett designed a waterproof cloak made from an early form of Macintosh cloth, cotton impregnated with India rubber by using naphtha as a solvent.

When inflated, it could carry two men, operating a paddle on each side, and when deflated served as a waterproof blanket to allow the users to camp on wet ground.

[12] Orkneyman John Rae, known by the Inuit as ᐊᒡᓘᑲ (Aglooka, "He who takes long strides"), was a Hudson's Bay Company surgeon who became a surveyor of the Canadian Arctic.

Bellot took a Halkett boat-cloak on the journey, noting in his journal that it was "of immense value in a country where the want of wood renders it impossible to form any sort of raft".