Jamestown, Va. ? Gov. Timothy M. Kaine bid “Godspeed” to the ship Godspeed on Monday, launching an 18-month series of events marking the 400th anniversary of America’s first permanent English settlement.

The Godspeed is a $2.6 million replica of one of the three ships that carried the first settlers to Jamestown in 1607. It is sailing to six East Coast ports to educate the public and generate interest in the “America’s 400th Anniversary” commemoration.

“Captain, cast off your lines and make ready to set sail, and let us share the story of America’s beginning. Godspeed,” Kaine said.

The ship then left its home berth at the state-run Jamestown Settlement living history museum, a few hundred yards from the spot where the settlers built James Fort.

“We begin to mark a moment that altered the path of the entire world and of human history,” Kaine said.

The ship slowly moved away from the dock onto the James River as its crew, dressed in 17th-century garb, unfurled the square sails on its three masts to cheers from onlookers.

The replica 17th century sailing vessel Godspeed delivers a cannon shot salute as it passes the original site of the Jamestown settlement as it makes its way down the James River after a sendoff for the ship in Jamestown, Va. The ship on Monday began an 80-day tour of the East Coast to help promote the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in 2007.

The Godspeed’s first stop will be in Alexandria, where it will be from Saturday through June 3. It then will head to Baltimore (June 9 to 12), Philadelphia (June 16 to 19), New York (June 27 to July 6), Boston (July 14 to 19) and Newport, R.I. (July 25 to 30).

The visits at each port will include a free “Landing Party,” with live performances, historical exhibits and cultural displays, and Godspeed’s crew will be dressed in costume as visitors come on board. While the ship is in “museum mode,” modern navigational equipment and amenities will be hidden to preserve the 17th-century atmosphere.

The first permanent settlement in what is now U.S. territory was St. Augustine, Fla., founded in 1565 by a Spaniard, Pedro Menendez de Aviles.

English colonists settled Roanoke Island, N.C., in the 1580s. But they disappeared, leaving a mystery that endures today.

The Jamestown settlers landed on May 13, 1607. In 1619, Jamestown became the site of the House of Burgesses, the first English-speaking legislature in the Western Hemisphere. But in 1699, after Jamestown was twice destroyed by fire, the Virginia colony’s capital was moved to Williamsburg.