On December 27, the ship left Hartlepool in England to go to Aarhus in Denmark with 5,600 tons of coal.

The captain on board was Joseph Huet.

Just before 1 a.m. on December 30, while off Varberg, a ship was suddenly seen in the foggy weather on a collision course. They turned to starboard but the ships were already too close together and the Danish tanker Rosborg drove straight into the CLM, which suffered severe damage to the port side at the second hold. The crew on board took it quite calmly and Captain Huet went down to his cabin and retrieved the ship’s papers and documents while other personnel awaited orders to abandon ship. Back on the bridge, the captain sent an SOS and reported the collision to Rosborg. Despite the enormous damage to the side of the ship, it was decided to try to run the ship aground at Middelgrund.

At 0240, another SOS was sent and nearby ships were notified to be ready to help. At 0335, Huet requested assistance from Rosborg and the Danish ship launched two boats but could not find CLM in the heavy fog and darkness.

At 0345, the last SOS was sent from CLM: “We are sinking!” At this time, 14 crew members remained on board (nine crew members had previously been taken aboard the Russian trawler Primorsk and were later taken to Copenhagen) and the order to abandon ship was given, whereupon everything that floated was thrown into the sea and then the crew members themselves jumped into the icy water, which at the time was about two degrees. The men swam away from the sinking ship. Six of the men managed to reach a lifeboat that had detached from the ship and five managed to get on board.

The chief engineer, Rochard, who had no strength left, could not bring himself to get up and hung for a while on the railing with one hand on the hand of the third engineer, Guillou, but then lost consciousness and floated away in the water.

Two hours after the sinking, the Swedish ship Gaper came to the rescue and took the five survivors on board, and the site was then searched for another seven hours without finding anyone else. Eight crew members died. The ship sank five hours after the collision with the Rosborg.

The wreck of the Capitaine Louis Malbert lies on the port side. The chimney, mast and air intake are still in place. Inside the wreck, the instruments are still in place inside the bridge but some cables have fallen down. From here you can get down into the ship, but it is limited space and an overall spooky wreck.