(1) The insurer or other person providing financial security for the ship owner's liability for pollution damage may be directly liable for any claim for compensation for such damage which may be brought directly against such insurer or other person.
(2) The insurer or other person providing financial security against whom a claim is made directly may, even if the owner is not entitled to limit his liability under section 181, avail himself of such limits of liability as specified in the said section.
(3) The insurer or other person providing financial security may further avail himself of the defences (other than the bankruptcy or winding up of the company) which the ship owner himself would have been entitled to invoke and such insurer or other person may avail himself of the defence that the pollution damage resulted from the wilful misconduct of the ship owner himself but such insurer or other person shall not avail himself of any other defence which he might have been entitled to invoke in the proceedings brought by the ship owner against him.
(4) The insurer or other person providing financial security shall in any case have the right to require the ship owner to be joined in the proceedings.
(5) Any sum provided by insurance or by other financial security maintained in accordance with section 188 shall be available exclusively for the satisfaction of claims under this Chapter.