Development of damage stability as a scientific subject, specifically in damage ship hydrodynamics and, generally, flooding risk assessment, has evolved primarily by inquisitive academics with support by people with vision and passion towards maritime safety enhancement from industry and Government, the latter in the wake of serious accidents. Notwithstanding this, the subject has seen remarkable development in a short period of time in terms of understanding process, and developing methods and tools for practical implementation of such developments. The stage has now been reached where large-scale EC and industry-funded projects are bringing all requisite knowledge and experience together towards implementation by end users with the view to institutionalizing such developments. The paper critically traces and presents key developments starting from basic concepts to a complete framework for performing numerical simulations of ship survivability in operational conditions in the seaway, leading to flooding risk assessment with application potential for new and existing ships with focus on the design phase but with operation potential in ship operation, the latter involving emergencies.