The aircraft carrier-turned-museum is to be towed, still backward, down the river toward New York Harbor for a five-mile trip to a shipyard in Bayonne, New Jersey, where it will undergo renovations.
Another former crewman, 81-year-old Felix Novelli, said he was confident the morning's move would go smoothly.
"The whole empire of Japan couldn't stop her. What makes you think a little mud will stand in her way?" Novelli said.