USS West Carnifax (ID-3812) was a cargo ship in the United States Navy shortly after World War I.

After commissioning, West Carnifax sailed from California with a load of wheat flour for the East Coast of the United States and, from there, to Europe.

[2] USS West Carnifax (ID-3812) was commissioned into the Naval Overseas Transportation Service (NOTS) at San Pedro, California, on 31 December 1918.

[4] Setting out four days later, West Carnifax was slated to sail to Danzig via Falmouth and the Hook of Holland, but was diverted en route.

[4] When she arrived at her new destination of Hamburg on 25 March,[8] she became the first American ship to dock in that city since before World War I had begun over 4+1⁄2 years before.

The news item reported that West Carnifax, while heading from Rotterdam to Galveston, Texas, ran short of provisions and fuel and had to be towed into New York by United States Coast Guard cutter USCGC Tampa (WPG-48).

[17] While near the Azores sailing from Alexandria, Egypt, to Boston in October, West Carnifax responded to an SOS from the American tanker David C. Reid which reported being in trouble during a storm.

[24] At 03:50 on 24 September 1934, Cunard-White Star ocean liner RMS Laconia collided with Pan Royal in a thick fog off the tip of Cape Cod.

[Note 4] Pan Royal developed a leak and had to return to Boston, from which she had left for Galveston, Texas, the previous day.

[26] In June the following year, The Christian Science Monitor reported that Pan Royal had been engaged to return "Big Joe" to the Soviet Union.

[28] As part of the dismantling, "Big Joe" had been warehoused in Hoboken, New Jersey, but prevented from export by a United States Maritime Commission ruling enforcing a "moral embargo" that prohibited the charter of American ships on behalf of the Soviet Union.

While in the UK during her second visit, the ship had called at Belfast Lough, Barry, and Milford Haven before returning to New York in October.