For what it's worth, my suspicion is that although the crews had removed most of the stores, fuel etc . from the ships, there were still working parties on board. The weather broke, stopping them getting back to the rest of the crews on land but opened the ice enough for at least one ship, Erebus, to start drifting down Victoria Strait toward her eventual last resting place in Maud Gulf. Inuit reported seeing one of the ships in Victoria Strait with smoke coming from the funnel. Also, the find of a ships boat, along with all sorts of 'junk' from the ship, on the shore of King William Island in such a position that it could be launched quite easily suggests that, before they died, a couple of sailors had been going out to the drifting Erebus on scavenging operations. The boat and a couple of bodies were discovered by one of the search operations (M'Clintock?) which also noted the orientation of the boat.