PEARL HARBOR — The crew of the Navy hospital ship Mercy drilled teeth, repaired cleft palates and built a wastewater treatment center during four months sailing around the western Pacific.

The ship's 2008 Pacific Partnership mission officially ended yesterday as the ship docked in Hawai'i for a brief R&R.

Navy Capt. Bill Kearns said the medical work alone earned the 1,000 men and women aboard the USNS Mercy a hero's welcome, but that was topped off with 60 construction projects completed by U.S. Navy Seabees and engineers from foreign militaries.

The 10-story-tall ship, a converted oil tanker, is berthed at Pearl Harbor, dwarfing the famed battleship USS Missouri. During its mission, the ship stopped in the Philippines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Federated States of Micronesia, and its teams saw tens of thousands of medical patients, more than 14,000 dental patients, and performed more than 1,300 surgeries.

"Our mission is to show the good will of the American people," said Kearns, the mission commander. "We very successfully brought medical care to 90,000 people."

The ship has 80 doctors and 12 operating rooms.

The crew is from Australia, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, Portugal and South Korea, and from nonmilitary groups such as Operation Smile, Project Hope, the University of California Pre-dental Society, East Meets West and International Relief Teams.

Mercy is one of two Navy ships that go around the globe offering help, Kearns said.

"After the tsunami relief in 2004 in Indonesia, we realized we could use these ships in a pro-active way," he said. "The reaction has been very positive, and we're receiving an outpouring of enthusiastic respect."

Cmdr. Trent Douglas, a surgeon from Fredericksburg, Va., rebuilt many children's cleft lips and palates, sometimes with the help of Operation Smile, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to such reconstructive work.

Douglas helped perform the surgery on four patients in Micronesia, six in Papua New Guinea and 12 in Timor-Leste.

Dentistry was an important part of the mission.

"The most amazing thing about being aboard Mercy is that I am a part of a unique global team," said dental student Thien-Kim Le in a statement. "I'm really seeing dentistry on a global level, which broadens your view on the importance of a good teamwork atmosphere."

Mercy left its home port of San Diego on May 1. At each port, the crew would stop for 10 to 14 days and set up clinics, Kearns said. The medical team saw about 1,000 people a day, he said.

The Seabees worked with Australian and Indian army engineers on construction projects that ranged from a wastewater treatment plant in the Philippines to a new community center in Papua New Guinea.