Damage Control

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:

    I came to explore the wreck.
    The words are purposes.
    The words are maps.
    I came to see the damage that was done
    and the treasures that prevail.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    There has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our haste to succeed and be great. Our thought has been “Let every man look out for himself, let every generation look out for itself,” while we reared giant machinery which made it impossible that any but those who stood at the levers of control should have any chance to look out for themselves.
    Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)