In navies and the maritime industry, damage control is the emergency control of situations that may cause the sinking of a watercraft. 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.

Measures used

Simple measures may stop flooding, such as: * locking off the damaged area from other ship's compartments; * blocking the damaged area by wedging a box around a tear in the ship's hull, * putting a band of thin sheet steel around a tear in a pipe, bound on by clamps. More complicated measures may be needed if a repair must take the pressure of the ship moving through the water. For example: *

Thermal lance A thermal lance, thermic lance, oxygen lance, or burning bar is a tool that heats and melts steel in the presence of pressurized oxygen to create very high temperatures for cutting. It consists of a long steel tube packed with alloy steel rods, w ...

cutting around the rupture. *

Oxyacetylene welding Principle of burn cutting Oxy-fuel welding (commonly called oxyacetylene welding, oxy welding, or gas welding in the United States) and oxy-fuel cutting are processes that use fuel gases (or liquid fuels such as gasoline or petrol, diesel, ...

or electric

arc welding Arc welding is a welding process that is used to join metal to metal by using electricity to create enough heat to melt metal, and the melted metals, when cool, result in a binding of the metals. It is a type of welding that uses a welding powe ...

of plates over the rupture. * Quick-drying cement is applied underwater over the rupture. Damage control training is undertaken by most seafarers, but the engineering staff are most experienced in making lasting repairs. Damage control is distinct from firefighting. Damage control methods of fighting fire are based on the class of ship and cater to ship specific equipment on board.

Notable contemporary examples

Particular examples: * USS ''Samuel B. Roberts'': After an

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian mine holed the frigate beneath the waterline in 1988, the crew fought fire and flooding that threatened to sink it. * USS ''Princeton: After an Iraqi naval mine damaged the cruiser during the 1991

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

, her crew fought fires and sealed cracks in the hull, then repaired electronic systems, bringing the Aegis Combat System back on line within 2 hours. * USS ''Cole'': immediate measures to stop sinking after the ship was bombed in 2000. * HMS ''Nottingham'': measures to keep the ship afloat after, on 7 July 2002, the ''Nottingham'' ran aground on the submerged but well-charted Wolf Rock near Lord Howe Island.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Damage Control Nautical terminology Navies Ship management

Measures used

Notable contemporary examples

See also

Notes

External links