The London P&I Club has revealed it will provide bail to release the master of the tanker Prestige, Captain Apostolos Mangouras, from a Spanish jail.
Mangouras has been held in the high-security jail for two months. The Prestige suffered structural damage in heavy weather off the Spanish coast last November, and subsequently broke up, having been refused entry to a Spanish harbour.
The P&I Club said the provision of bail for officers imprisoned following a casualty is not a routine function. However a P&I Club statement said the case of the Prestige involves "very special circumstances indeed".
Paul Hinton, chief executive of London Club managers, A Bilbrough & Co said: "That is why the Club has found a means to assist on this occasion. The decision has been made following careful review of very many complex considerations.
"Our committee, which is comprised of ship owners, has been shocked at the treatment of a man who, by all accounts, put himself at grave personal risk to do his duty in very difficult circumstances."
