SS West Eldara was a steel-hulled cargo ship built in 1918 as part of the United States Shipping Board's emergency World War I shipbuilding program. West Eldara briefly served with the U.S. Navy in the immediate postwar period as the auxiliary ship USS West Eldara (ID-3704), completing two relief missions to Europe before decommissioning. Between the wars, West Eldara operated as a merchant ship in transatlantic service. In 1936 she was renamed SS Mae. In September 1942 Mae was intercepted by German submarine U-515 off British Guiana and sunk with torpedoes and gunfire.