Did Admiral Ghormley have access to intellegence reports on Japanese movements prior to the Battle of Savo Island?

Question

We know that Admiral Turner, the commander of the Landing Force at Guadalcanal had received (heavily flawed) reports on the movements of Admiral Mikawa's force, prior to the Battle of Savo Island. My question is, did Admiral Ghormley also receive those reports?

The only information I've seen suggests that the reports were directly received by Turner. The chain of command suggests that they should have been delivered to Ghormley, as Admiral McCain and his land based reconnaissance aircraft reported to Ghormley as area commander.

Answer 1

My best source for this is Richard B. Frank's book Guadalcanal, which doesn't mention Ghormley receiving the reports. However, requiring the reports to be routed through Ghormley to Turner would have been foolish; it was undoubtedly correct for McCain to send his reports directly to Turner.

This is because Ghormley was 900 miles away, in Nouméa, New Caledonia. With the shortwave radio of the time, nobody could rely on messages getting there and back promptly. They'd be sure to make it after a while (via repeated attempts), but imposing unknown delays on information with potential tactical importance would have been silly.

Ghormley got many things wrong in the Guadalcanal campaign, but most of the blame for the disastrous Battle of Savo Island must go to the British Rear-Admiral Crutchley, who was in command of the forces guarding against Japanese surface action from that direction, and failed to organise them properly, or tell his subordinates where he was, and thus who was in command.