London’s shipping triumvirate of Clyde & Co, Holman Fenwick & Willan and Ince & Co have all been drafted in as advisers in the aftermath of last week’s sinking of the oil tanker Prestige.

Clyde has been called in to advise the cargo’s owners, the Russian and Swiss venture Crown Resources, after the tanker sank 130 miles off the Spanish coast in the worst oil spill since Exxon Valdez in 1989.