ABOARD THE USS MISSOURI — Just as the USS Missouri battleship left historic Battleship Row for the first time in 11 years today, volunteer David Horen quickly polished the brass plaque marking the spot where a Japanese delegation officially surrendered aboard the Mighty Mo, ending World War II.

Four tugboats yesterday nudged, pulled and towed the Missouri from Ford Island's Pier Foxtrot 5 just after sunrise today as Horen hastily shined the plaque with Brasso and a scrub pad and covered his handiwork in cardboard and blue painter's tape.

"It needs to be protected," said Horen, 61, who served as a signalman aboard the USS Goldsborough destroyer during the Vietnam War. "I want to make sure this doesn't get dinged up in drydock. It's history."

It's that kind of sentiment for the last battleship in the U.S. fleet that drew about 70 active duty sailors and another 30 VIPs to the historic teak decks of the Missouri today.

Riding the Missouri for the two-mile trip from Foxtrot 5 to Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard's Drydock 4, the largest of the shipyard's four drydocks, meant boarding the ship before sunrise and staying on for 12 hours until 53.4 million gallons of seawater drained from the drydock at a rate of one foot every three minutes.

"It's worth it," said Larry Cavanaugh, 61, a retired Marine from Chicago who comes to Ford Island every winter to sand the Missouri's teak decks. "I want to give back to this great ship."

Alexander "Sandy" Gaston was the first person to donate to the effort that brought the Missouri out of mothballs in Bremerton, Washington and into Pearl Harbor in 1998.

"It's a great honor to be on board," Gaston said. "The Missouri is a national treasure."

A couple hundred more military members along the docks around Pearl Harbor and about 50 tourists near the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor's Center craned for a glimpse of the Missouri as it headed toward $18 million worth of repairs — primarily three months of sanding and painting.

The 887-foot battleship, the last one ever built for the U.S. fleet, is famous for its "surrender deck," marked with the brass plaque that Horen quickly polished today.

But its military service spanned five decades and three wars, including the "Liberation of Kuwait."

Navy Petty Officer James Stoddard volunteered to man the Missouri's lines and spend all day on board because, "How many times you get to ride a battleship?" Stoddard asked. "I don't see them making any more in the future."

Near the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center on shore, Navy veteran Dave Miller, a 62-year-old tourist from San Diego, showed up before sunrise with his wife, Ruth, also a retired sailor.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence to see it moved," Dave Miller said. "It's important to us who served. It's important to us for history's sake. It's the last battleship."

Michael A. Carr, president and chief operating officer of the USS Missouri Memorial Association, stood on the Missouri's "flying bridge" during the two-mile trip and marveled at the precision in which the various shipyard crews coordinated the move, which included men and women pulling the Missouri into drydock by hand and using laser measuring tools that precisely positioned the Missouri over 310 concrete blocks inside the drydock that each weigh 8,000 pounds.

"These people have obviously done this a number of times," Carr said.

The "Mighty Mo" is barred by its agreement with the Navy from firing up its engines inside Pearl Harbor so it proceeded without any power or running water during its move.

Michael A. Lilly, 64, a retired Navy captain, former Hawaii attorney general and current member of the Missouri Association's board of directors, wore his brass "surface warfare" insignia belt buckle as a reminder of his Vietnam War service.

"This is historic," Lilly said as tugboats pulled the Missouri through Pearl Harbor at a speed he estimated at 4 to 5 knots. "We haven't been underway since June 1998."

The Missouri will remain in drydock until Jan. 7. Tours are scheduled to resume on Jan. 29.

Advertiser staff writer Mike Gordon contributed to this report.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.