Cinnabar means to gild silver and gold to objects) "the toxic properties of mercury were well known. It was dangerous to those who mined and processed cinnabar, it caused shaking, loss of sense, and death. Data suggest that mercury was retorted from cinnabar and the workers were exposed to the toxic mercury fumes." Overexposure to mercury, mercurialism, was seen as an occupational disease to the ancient Romans: "Mining in the Spanish cinnabar mines of Almadén, southwest of Madrid, was regarded as being akin to a death sentence due to the shortened life expectancy of the miners, who were slaves or convicts."
USS Cinnabar (IX-163) was en route to Okinawa during the typhoon at sea 30 September to 2 October. On 9 October 1945 during Typhoon Louise she went aground at Baten Ko, Buckner Bay, Okinawa. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 3 January 1946, returned to her owner at Okinawa, and subsequently sold. USS Cinnabar (IX-163) USS "Cinnabar" (IX-163), a designated an unclassified miscellaneous vessel, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for cinnabar. Her keel was laid down in 1944. She was acquired on a loan-charter basis from the War Shipping Administration and placed in