page_title: SS Pan Kraft
hierarchical_section_title: SS Pan Kraft
caption_attribution_description: English: S.S. West Avenal (American Freighter, 1919). Probably photographed circa January 1919, when she was first completed by the Western Pipe &amp; Steel Company, South San Francisco, California. This freighter was taken over by the Navy on 1 February 1919 and placed in commission as USS West Avenal (ID # 3871). She was returned to the U.S. Shipping Board on 5 April 1919.
context_page_description: Pan Kraft was a cargo ship built in 1919 by the Western Pipe and Steel Company of California. She was one of eighteen ships built by the company for the U.S. Shipping Board. After merchant service between the wars, she was to become one of the victims of Great Britain's disastrous Convoy PQ 17 to Russia during World War II.
context_section_description: Pan Kraft was a cargo ship built in 1919 by the Western Pipe and Steel Company of California. She was one of eighteen ships built by the company for the U.S. Shipping Board. After merchant service between the wars, she was to become one of the victims of Great Britain's disastrous Convoy PQ 17 to Russia during World War II.
caption: West Avenal, sister ship to Pan Kraft
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