The replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour is to leave British waters and return home to Australia for good.
The ship has anchored at various ports around the UK
Thousands of people have visited the ship at ports around the country since her arrival in Whitby in June 2002.
But the Australian government wants her to return home to the National Maritime Museum in Sydney. She will sail from Whitehaven on 8 November.
Julian Hicks, from the Endeavour Foundation, said: "It will be sad to see her leave UK waters."
The ship is a copy of the HM Bark Endeavour which set off to chart New Zealand and Australia in 1768.
Launched in December 1993, the replica has sailed around the world with the Endeavour Foundation.
But the vessel will be anchored in Sydney at the end of the five-month journey home and will not be seen in the UK again.
"She will have been away for over three years by the time she gets home and they [the Australian people] want to see her again," Mr Hicks told BBC Online.
"This day was going to come at some point, we just didn't know when. It was inevitable.
"We were hoping for some time at the end of 2005. It has come a bit earlier than expected, but that's life."
Mr Hicks said the foundation was expecting lots of people to wave the ship off when she sets sail from Cumbria in November.
"She has been immensely popular and made a lot of friends throughout Europe and the UK - particularly here in Whitby," he added.