Damage control is a term used in the Merchant Marine, maritime industry and navies for the emergency control of situations that may hazard the sinking of a ship. It is also used in other contexts as explained below.
Examples are:
- rupture of a pipe or hull especially below the waterline and
- damage from grounding (running aground) or hard berthing against a wharf.
- temporary fixing of bomb or explosive damage.
The term is also used in project management and other contexts to describe the actions needed to deal with any problem that may jeopardize an endeavor. As well, it has been adopted for use in politics and media to describe a need to suppress information or employ spin doctors to represent a response to a situation.
Read more about Damage Control: Measures Used, Notable Contemporary Examples
Famous quotes containing the words damage and/or control:
“The relationship between mother and professional has not been a partnership in which both work together on behalf of the child, in which the expert helps the mother achieve her own goals for her child. Instead, professionals often behave as if they alone are advocates for the child; as if they are the guardians of the child’s needs; as if the mother left to her own devices will surely damage the child and only the professional can rescue him.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Our intellect is not the most subtle, the most powerful, the most appropriate, instrument for revealing the truth. It is life that, little by little, example by example, permits us to see that what is most important to our heart, or to our mind, is learned not by reasoning but through other agencies. Then it is that the intellect, observing their superiority, abdicates its control to them upon reasoned grounds and agrees to become their collaborator and lackey.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)