A rectangular white marble memorial tablet with pediment for Thomas and James Cubbin inside Old Kirk Braddan (Church of St. Brendan) at Braddan Bridge in Braddan.
The epitaph on the memorial is as follows:
"IN MEMORY OF
THOMAS,
AGED 11 YEARS AND 3 MONTHS, AND.
JAMES
1 YEAR AND 10 MONTHS, SONS OF THOMAS, AND
ARMS, IN THE SURF ON THE COAST OF MADAGASCAR, ON
THE 26TH MARCH 1868, AFTER ENDURING VERY GREAT
PRIVATION AND SUFFERINGS 11 DAYS IN A SMALL OPEN
BOAT, THROUGH THE FOUNDERING OF THE SHIP SERICA.
AFTER AN AWFUL HURRICAN IN THE INDIAN SEA.
“TEACH ME TO LIVE THAT I MAY DREAD
THE GRAVE AS LITTLE AS MY BED.”"
The quotation at the end of the epitaph is taken from the third verse of the hymn “All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night”
Link
The line was later use by Thomas Hardy in the dream that closes Chapter 1 of ‘Jude the Obscure’
More information on the end of the tragically short lives of Thomas and James is taken from a laminated sheet which is directly below the memorial tablet inside the church:
“The memorial tablet above was placed by THOMASand MARY CUBBIN (neeWagstaff) to commemorate the loss of their young sons THOMASand JAMES after the wreck of the barque Serica in the Indian Ocean in March 1868.
On 8th December 1867 Captain Cubbin set out from Liverpool for Aden with a cargo of coal. With him on board the Serica were his wife, their two sons, and a crew of fourteen men and boys. When they sailed, the Cubbins left behind four daughters, aged from twelve down to only six months, at their home at Rose Hill, Braddan.
In March 1868 the Serica encountered one of the fiercest hurricanes ever recorded in the Indian Ocean. The vessel was so badly damaged that she had to be abandoned, and the family and crew left her in two small boats, both of which headed for Madagascar. During the landing on that island the two boys were drowned, along with one of the crewmen on their boat. From the other boat, one sailor had already gone mad after drinking seawater and had plunged overboard to his death, two died of fever in Madagascar, and a fourth died during the eventual voyage back to England.
THOMAS CUBBIN (1823-1881) was born at Derbyhaven. He first went to sea at sixteen, and sailed widely round the world during his maritime career, to North and South America, Africa, India, China, Japan, the Malaysian Peninsula, Australia and New Zealand. His four youngest children were all baptised in this church.
To the left of the above text is a photograph of a book cover. The book in question is ‘Thomas Cubbin, Master Mariner and the Wreck of the Serica”: Cubbin’s own account of the 1868 tragedy with an historical foreword by Valerie Cottle.
The laminate describes the book as follows: “The full story of Thomas Cubbin’s maritime career and his loss of the Serica is told in this book, published by The Manx Heritage Foundation.”