Being in close proximity to any Naval vessels, even in peace time, is a bit of a crap shoot at best, especially when you live on Vancouver Island, due to the proximity of CFB Esquimalt and the Nanoose Bay Underwater Test Range. Fortunately, there have been no known fatalities, of which I'm aware, but it has created more than a few ruffled feathers.

VICTORIA (CP) - Embarrassed Canadian Navy officials launched an investigation Wednesday to probe reports that live ammunition may have been fired from a Canadian warship docked near Victoria.

A sailor on board the HMCS Huron. reported hearing a bang and seeing a flash at the end of the ship's anti-missile machine gun while the weapon was undergoing routine maintenance Tuesday. It's the second military misfire by the Canadian Navy in the area in recent years.

Commodore Ken McMillan, commander of the Pacific Fleet, said military police and a board of inquiry from National Defence headquarters in Ottawa will attempt to determine what happened in the most recent incident,

Thousands of people live near CFB Esquimalt, home of the Pacific Fleet. In August 1996, the Navy accidentally launched a 20-kilogram, 1.5-metre long chaff missile from HMCS Regina into the neighbouring community of View Royal.

The missile travelled almost three kilometres before crashing through a garage roof behind Pete's Tent and Awning, located on the main street in View Royal. There were no injuries, but the missile, which was not loaded with explosives, embedded itself into the ground after hitting the garage.

Shortly after the missile accident, Pete Bishop painted a bull's-eye onto the side wall of his business and put up a poster declaring Pete's Tent and Awning a missile free zone. A Navy inquiry determined human error caused the accidental firing.

''There were a lot of lessons learned from that particular incident,'' McMillan said Wednesday. ''We have hoisted in those lessons and we have moved forward. There is the policy that no live rounds are in any of our weapons systems while we are in harbour.'' (Although apparently not enough lessons to prevent the second occurrence) Brackets mine.

In another military misfiring incident two years ago, hikers on the world-renowned West Coast Trail in Pacific Rim National Park were forced to duck for cover as American naval vessels fired 50 calibre rounds into a wooded area near the popular hiking spot. Following that incident, measures were taken to ensure American and Canadian naval ships test their weapons far away from areas frequented by the public. (Yup, just send them a little farther up the Island, away from the German tourists, where there are only some Stellar's Sea Lions and a few Indians.)

(Fishermen are usually the ones at greater risk though.)

(Georgia Strait Alliance) In August, 1991 the USS Omaha, a nuclear attack submarine, was en route to the Nanoose range when it ran through a fleet of gillnetters. It snagged a net, tore it to pieces and terrified the fishermen aboard who thought their vessel was going to be overturned or submerged. Fisherman on site said that the sub was travelling at 17 knots and ignored Canadian Coast Guard warnings that a fishery was in progress. The same morning, the US Navy supply vessel Lewis B. Puller narrowly missed numerous fishboats and ran over up to twenty nets dragging several boats along behind. Fishermen report that the US sailors on deck laughed at the chaos their ship was creating and that when they left the river, cut the remnants of the nets loose to drift around in Georgia Strait.

(And if fishing isn't dangerous enough, God help you if you are in a sailboat, although you would think a fog horn would be detectable by technically more sophisticated vessels.)

In 1994 a German-built Chilean submarine on its way back from testing torpedoes at Nanoose Bay collided with and sank the B.C. sailboat Moonglow, nearly drowning its owner, Jory Lord. This collision happened even though the Moonglow was using full running lights, radar and a foghorn, and the modern, high-tech submarine was deploying radar reflectors.

"A West Vancouver man whose sailboat was sunk by a Chilean submarine about two years ago has launched a lawsuit against Chile, the United States and the Attorney General of Canada.

Jory Lord clung to a floating propane tank as his 15-metre (50-ft.) ketch, Moonglow, sank to the ocean floor in Juan de Fuca Strait on Sept. 11, 1994. The sailboat went down off Sheringham Point on the south coast of Vancouver Island.

Since then, Lord has fought unsuccessfully for redress in a David and Goliath battle. Lord has been up against the armed forces of the Chilean, Canadian and United States governments.

In a statement of claim filed on Wednesday in BC Supreme Court, Lord alleges that the Chilean submarine, Thomson, entered Canadian waters at the invitation of the United States under an agreement with the Canadian government.

The Thomson, the claim states, engaged in naval warfare exercises with Canadian and American navy vessels in Georgia Strait.

The Thomson, under the command of Capt. Juan Eduardo De La Cerda Merino (also named in the suit), left Nanoose Harbor on Vancouver Island and was en route to San Diego at the time of the collision. On board the diesel-powered sub were United States naval personnel. The sub was participating in military exercises at Canadian Forces Maritime Experimental and Test Ranges (CFMETR) near Nanoose, according to an August 1995 News story. Lord, a veteran seaman, was heading from Port San Juan to Victoria on a foggy evening.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants were solely negligent in the sinking because they failed to keep a proper or "any" lookout at the time.

The claim also alleges that the submarine's captain falsely imprisoned Lord for 11/2 hours after the hypothermic Lord was rescued by Thomson crew and brought on board. Lord, the suit states, requested to be transferred to a Canadian port or a Canadian Coast Guard vessel. The suit claims the captain and two unidentified United States naval officers on board refused the request. They "confined" Lord to the sub until he signed a prepared statement, according to the lawsuit.

Lord, 27, is seeking damages for the loss of his boat and personal possessions. The lawsuit is also seeking punitive and aggravated damages. Lord's ketch was a 1939 wooden vessel. Its value is estimated at $300,000. The cost of insuring it for perils was prohibitive." (Sunken Sailor Sues by Anna Marie D'Angelo, News Reporter)

(Never heard about the outcome of this, I imagine if he hasn't run out of money, he's still in court.)

The subs noted above were not submerged.