ABSTRACT
Although the fifty-six hours the transports had spent off Guadalcanal and Tulagi should in fact have been adequate time for an orderly unloading if properly organized and appropriately staffed, when the ships left they still held over 1,000 men of the 2nd Marines as well as 75 percent of their cargoes. Some crewmen threw food overboard in the hope that it would float toward the beach.1 Reports varied as to how much the men had.2 Turner later said there were thirty-seven days’ supplies, a substantial amount that would relieve the guilt pangs of any departing sailor. Morison in his quasi-official history adopted that figure.3 On the other extreme was Ghormley, who on 16 August informed Nimitz and King, possibly on the authority of 1st Division quartermaster Lt.-Col. Raymond Coffman, that the men were down to three days’ rations.4 Whatever the reality, Vandegrift was worried enough to reduce the meals to two per day.
