Comments about some of Sir John Franklin's officers

Late in season one, sub-lieutenant Charles Des Voeux of the Erebus starts showing signs of loyalty to Hickey and his gang which differs both from his portrayal in the book, where he remains loyal to Crozier and Fitzjames, and most likely real life.
There are only a few fragmentary scraps of evidence as to Des Voeux's personality and character but from those few scraps it seems very unlikely that he was the snarky, rude and ultimately treacherous jerkass he is in the show. Instead, he was cheery, outgoing and amiable, at least as described by Fitzjames plus one or two other officers who served with him before he joined the Franklin expedition. His depiction in the novel is much more in keeping with what he was probably like and served the story just fine. Why that was changed for the series is lost on me.
In a similar vein, I also get the impression that Lieutenant George Hodgson's portrayal is inaccurate. In the show, beginning more or less with the previous episode--Horrible From Supper--and continuing in earnest here, Hodgson emerges as a wishy-washy doormat who is easily manipulated by Hickey. He reminds me of Hollum in Master and Commander.
We know that in real life Lt. Hodgson fought some pirates on the Malaya peninsula just two years before joining the HMS Terror for the Franklin expedition in addition to having fought in the Opium War in China alongside Fitzjames, Des Voeux and others who would later join the expedition. In order for Hodgson to have made it through those conflicts and still remained steadily employed by the Royal Navy, and move up the ranks no less, he must have had a steelier disposition than what is depicted on the tv series it seems to me.
Finally, Collins' portrayal in the TV series is in keeping with how he's depicted in other novels such as "North with Franklin: The Lost Journals of James Fitzjames" and a German graphic novel about the expedition called "Im Eisland". In both of those works, as in the TV show, Collins is shown as being introverted and aloof and seemingly the first person on the Franklin expedition to succumb to melancholy and despair. That can't all be a coincidence.
Does anyone know of any existing records as to Collins' personality?