High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS West Avenal (ID-3871) was a cargo ship in the United States Navy during World War I. She had been built as SS West Avenal for the United States Shipping Board (USSB) as part of the West boats, a series of steel-hulled cargo ships built on the West Coast of the United States. West Avenal was launched in October 1918 by the Western Pipe and Steel Company of San Francisco, California, and delivered to the U.S. Navy when she was completed in February 1919. After she was commissioned and had taken on a load of flour, West Avenal sailed to Norfolk, Virginia, where she was decommissioned in early April.