From the shore of Pearl Harbor, a place where aging warriors often feel the pangs of youth, the battleship USS Missouri seemed to come alive yesterday, delighting those who gathered to watch its move to drydock.

They stood on the lawn of the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park and stared across the harbor as tugboats muscled the Missouri away from its pier on Ford Island and pointed it toward the harbor mouth. Of course, all of the nearly 50 spectators knew it was an illusion — the Mighty Mo was bound for repairs at the nearby Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and not the call to duty.

But the truth was no less thrilling, certainly not for Ken Davis. A 75-year-old retired hospital administrator from Kailua, Davis had toured the battleship-turned-museum after it opened. To see it free from its pier — untethered from its role as a popular tourist attraction — was something else altogther.

"It's an opportunity to see something pretty special, to see the Missouri move," he said, struggling to describe what he felt. "It's a chicken-skin time for me. It really is."

There is something about this ship — with its high bow and sweeping hull line — that stirs the soul. Launched in 1944, it had been decommissioned twice before it arrived in Hawaii in 1998 under tow, rusted and in need of caring hands. Thousands of volunteers fell in love with the ship and its history.

That's what brought some of them out yesterday.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence to see it moved," said Dave Miller, a 62-year-old San Diego tourist who arrived with his wife, Ruth, before sunup. Both served in the Navy.

"It's important to us who served," he said. "It's important to us for history's sake. It's the last battleship."

From the Bowfin museum, the view of the move lasted barely 30 minutes before the gray warship was towed around a bend in the shoreline and out of sight.

The move tugged heavily on the memories of those who had seen the Mighty Mo in its prime, when the Navy used battleships as a symbol of military power.

Among them was Bob Lemon, a 77-year-old retiree from Indiana who was thrilled to see the warship. The last time Lemon saw the Missouri, it was steaming out of port in Norfolk, Va., in 1953. He was a 21-year-old machinist mate aboard the USS Kennebec, a tanker, and he stood on the port side so he could throw a salute.

"It threw chills up your arm," he said yesterday, reliving the moment as the Missouri glided out of view. "It's a beautiful looking ship."

Bill Perry, a 66-year-old retired shipyard foreman who worked on the Missouri when it was in drydock in the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in the 1980s, watched much of yesterday's slow-motion move through the telephoto lens of his camera.

"I've been on it and in it," said Perry, who now lives in Pearl City. "We changed one of the gun barrels in Long Beach — 100 tons. I have some good memories of that ship. It's one of a kind. It's nostalgia to be here."