Beachcomber-

Getting back to the message "came to Ireland's relief at the Famine times.' I don't believe that the Constitution was ever involved in relief efforts to Ireland. However, I seem to remember reading that the 1854 Constellation was.

Maybe the remains could be submitted to DNA analysis. It might really be a chip off the old block, or something picked up in a nautical junk shop whose origins are entirely spurious.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble