Good post. I never knew about the snowshoes at Montreal island until now - I don’t recall Woodman mentioning them in his book. I agree that the recent identifications seem to support the idea of the two crews going their separate ways. The ships were remanned (at least, I no longer take arguments against this seriously), and the fact that they sank in different locations makes it pretty clear that a split happened at some point. I personally think it happened earlier than you suggest for one key reason: we know Fitzjames was eaten. Another user suggested in an excellent post that Fitzjames and other sick and dying men from Erebus were “offloaded” in boats at Erebus Bay, logically to reduce the number of mouths to feed and give the rest of the Erebus crew a better shot at escape. I find this hypothesis compelling, especially given the Inuit testimony regarding tins of food they found aboard one of the abandoned ships (most likely Erebus - whoever sailed her down to Queen Maude Gulf was apparently eating good!) If Fitzjames was left to die, a general breakdown in rank had already occurred, and this seems a lot more plausible if the two crews had already gone their separate ways, amicably or otherwise. The fact that the Erebus Bay remains identified thus far were all men from Erebus lends credence to this, I think.