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The vessels of the Franklin expedition were likely heated by hot air piped through a patent heating and ventilation system engineered by Charles Sylvester. Both Erebus and Terror had been refitted for use in Arctic exploration after earlier service as bomb vessels, and warm-air heating systems were incorporated into these refits as one of several provisions against the extreme conditions Franklin and his men anticipated encountering. Polar exploration vessels of the 1830s and 1840s were heated with a variety of steam, hot-air, and hot-water systems -- the Terror had been refitted in 1836 with a newer Perkins forced hot-water heating system which proved insufficient during the Back expedition of 1836-1837. The Perkins system was promptly replaced with an earlier-style Sylvester heating system, less prone to corrosion and better able to combat the perceived dangers of damp air. The description of Sylvester's system given by Sir William Edward Parry in 1824 outlines its function -- heat was generated by combustion of coal and used to warm incoming cold air which was then dispersed through ducts throughout the ship.

Both ships were heated via patent furnace systems that relied on the combustion of coal, and these patent systems, along with Fraser patent stoves used for cooking, were employed to distill fresh water both for drinking and for running the ships' steam engines. As the time spent in the ice increased, coal would have become an increasingly limited resource, and its expenditure more risky. In addition to limiting onboard heat, any breakdown or deterioration of the ship's heating system would negatively impact air quality and humidity below decks and could potentially accelerate the spread of disease -- so it's possible damage to the ships' heating systems spurred the decision to leave the ships behind, or that conditions below decks might have been unpleasantly warm and damp even as temperatures in the open air dropped punishingly low over the course of several winters.

Onboard their ships, men were likely able to undress and sleep in relative comfort as long as the ships' heating systems remained functioning. We can get a sense of what men wore beneath their outermost layers from the clothes worn for burial by deceased crew members like John Torrington of the Terror and William Braine and John Hartnell of the Erebus -- Torrington died in January of 1846 and was buried at Beechey Island along with two other crew members who passed away early in the expedition. As a result of their formal burial in the ice, these crew members are relatively well-preserved, as are the textiles accompanying them. The men are attired in similar-looking striped shirts woven from a blend of cotton and linen and two of the three wear white linen trousers, with printed cotton kerchiefs binding or covering their heads. (If you've seen photographs of these remains, you know this didn't help much -- photo of Torrington's remains, possibly NSFW/NSFL.) Hartnell wore a knit cap, but no trousers; Braine was buried with a pair of stockings. Curiously, Braine and Hartnell were both found wearing three shirts each. Hartnell wore a knitted wool sweater and cotton undershirt beneath a blue-and-white striped shirt similar to Torrington's. The striped shirt appeared to be the property of his brother Thomas Hartnell judging from a laundry mark on one shirttail. Braine likewise wore two undershirts, one inside-out. The laundry mark among other things is enough to suggest that these articles were the men's own ordinary underclothes, not special attire for burial. It seems likely to me that these men slept in at least some of these clothes while on board their ships; the vast majority of the crew slept in hammocks, and even the sleeping arrangements for the captains of both vessels don't sound particularly lavish. Conditions for bathing on board were pretty rudimentary; the garments of all three crew members found on Beechey Island were described as "soiled" (though they were deceased) and the combination of close quarters, limited attire, and potentially unreliable temperatures likely inhibited personal hygiene.

Sailors were issued more-or-less standardized slops to serve as work clothes; otherwise, men wore the naval uniforms associated with their rank, affiliations, and daily activities -- I confess to finding all military uniforms completely baffling but I haven't read anything to suggest that cold-weather uniform wearing on the final Franklin expedition differed significantly from other cold-weather garments worn on other voyages of the same era. When men traveled outside, they layered heavily -- men used multiple hats and knitted scarves to retain heat around the face and neck, and some scholars like Peter Carney entertain the possibility that "Powell's Templar cap", a then-recent precursor to the modern balaclava may have been used by some men on the expedition to protect the face. Carney acknowledges that this Templar cap connection is speculative but a much more ubiquitous option for layering under other headgear was the Welsh wig, a woolen knit cap extending to cover the ears and neck. Gloves could be leather, wool cloth, or knitted cotton and wool, and could be worn layered beneath mitts for an additional level of cold protection. Other precautions against the elements included snow goggles like this pair made with lenses of pierced wood, wire mesh, or black crape cloth. (Parry had found black crape cloth "veils" attached to men's hats to be a suitable workaround for avoiding snow blindness.)

The question of coats is a little more speculative across the board; Owen Beattie's Frozen In Time suggests that at least some of the men may have been issued sealskin or deerskin outerwear before the expedition, but brass and gilt buttons were a common enough find for Franklin relic-seekers to suggest that men retained their uniform coats and greatcoats after leaving the ships, and imagined depictions of the expedition like Willam Thomas Smith's "They Forged The Last Links With Their Lives" have inferred what outerwear for sledging might have looked like by drawing on the gear worn by later explorers like Francis McClintock who ventured north in pursuit of Franklin. (The historical advisor to the AMC show The Terror, historian Matthew Betts, talks about his involvement in reconstructing the crews' sledging clothes on his blog -- the show's designs are clearly influenced by later canvas outerwear like McClintock's hooded smock and "duck jumper overall".)

We can get clues as to what the men took with them after they left their vessels from Francis McClintock's description of the various belongings he found on his 1857 expedition to locate Franklin. Among the articles discovered in an abandoned boat and sledge, McClintock lists "a small pair of very stout shooting boots, a pair of very heavy iron-shod knee boots, carpet boots, sea boots and shoes—in all seven or eight pairs", "silk handkerchiefs (black, white, and coloured), "a macintosh", "a small worsted-work slipper, lined with calfskin, bound with red riband; a great quantity of clothing, and a wolfskin robe". (Other expeditions preceding Franklin's had used fur sleeping robes for warmth when sleeping in tents, akin to a sleeping bag, so I'd assume it's a garment more along those practical lines than its juxtaposition with the vaguely luxurious worsted-work slipper might suggest. When sleeping outdoors, it seems likely the men remained as clothed as possible.) McClintock also records the discovery of other clothing articles and fragments, some practical and some ceremonial -- a heap or perhaps a cache of "warm clothing and blankets" left behind at the Ross cairn, blanket frocks, gloves, mitts, stockings, boots, "pilot cloth and box cloth jackets and trousers" (both heavy-duty woolen fabrics commonly used for seamen's clothing), fragments of blue serge coats, watch chains, spectacles, bootlaces, medals, and fragments of Marine shakos. Wool blankets and canvas coverings were also recovered from sites believed to be former Franklin expedition camps, as well as bearskins and wolfskins.