High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The first USS Superior was built for the War of 1812, and was named after one of the Great Lakes where much of the shipboard fighting was done during that war. The Superior was a U.S. Navy frigate built in 1814 at Sackets Harbor, New York, by Henry Eckford, and was laid down in February 1814 and launched on 2 May of the same year.