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Halkett cloth boat owned by Dr John Rae. Layers of cotton fabric and rubber, copper alloy air valves, canvas fender filled with cork. On the bow is painted Dr Rae, Hudson Bay and on the stern 'James Fitzjames', who was Commander of HMS Erbus on the lost Franklin expedition. It was given by John Rae to Miss Peace, Kirkwall for safe keeping.

A remarkable survivor on display at Stromness Museum is one of only two existing Halkett inflatable boats dating from the 1840s. Lt. Peter Halkett was the son of John Halkett, a director in the Hudson’s Nay Company. He was interested in Arctic exploration and inspired to create a light-weight boat by Franklin’s Coppermine Expedition (1819-22), when they were stranded on the wrong side of the Coppermine River. Initially Halkett created a boat-cloak, that could be worn when not inflated. He later developed a larger boat, made from layers of cloth impregnated with Indian rubber, which could carry two people. It was carried in a rucksack and came with paddles and bellows to inflate it.

It was welcomed by Sir John Franklin, who gifted one to Governor George Simpson of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Franklin ordered two for his ill-fated Northwest Passage Expedition of 1845. The following year, the Orkney explorer Dr John Rae used a Halkett boat on the first of his four expeditions. While Rae learnt his survival skills from the First Nation and Inuit peoples, he was not reluctant to use modern technology. Rae would go on to map over 1,750 miles of previously uncharted Arctic coastline, establishing King William Land as an island, thus filling in the last piece of a navigable Northwest Passage, as proved by Roald Amundsen in his 1903-06 expedition.

The origin of the Halkett boat in Stromness Museum is an enigma. On the stern is painted ‘James Fitzjames’, the Captain of HMS Erebus of the Franklin Expedition. Was this boat destined for the Arctic with Franklin? Did it sail with them, but was returned as they tried to reduce weight on the two ships? On the bow is pained ‘Dr Rae’. It was he who discovered the fate of the Franklin Expedition from the Inuit in 1854. Was the unused boat passed to him for use in his later expeditions? He was the 2^nd in command to Sir John Richardson in search of Franklin in 1849-9. They used a Halkett boat, so was it this one? We simply don’t know. Rae gave it to Miss Peace in Kirkwall and it ended up in Sam Baikie’s woodyard before passing to the Kirkwall Harbour Master, John Bremner, who donated it to the museum.