The opening digression uses HMS Ben-my-Chree to show how service songs preserve their own versions of ship names. The correct pronunciation is closer to "Ben-my-Shree," while a World War II version of a Fleet Air Arm song renders it as "Ben-my-Sherry" for the rhyme. Several wartime naval aviators in the family sang that version at Christmas, so the song's pronunciation was learned before the written name. The anecdote records a small piece of oral Fleet Air Arm culture and does not establish a formal pronunciation rule.
Notable Point · 4:00-5:42
Ben-my-Chree in a wartime Fleet Air Arm song
A Fleet Air Arm song used a rhymed pronunciation of Ben-my-Chree that remained in one naval-aviation family even after the ship's proper pronunciation was known.