High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Mississippi, a paddle frigate, was the first ship of the United States Navy to bear that name. She was named for the Mississippi River. Her sister ship was Missouri. Her keel was laid down by the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1839; built under the personal supervision of Commodore Matthew Perry. She was commissioned on December 22, 1841, with Captain W. D. Salter in command and launched several weeks later.