The field recordings of old sailors made in Britain by JM Carpenter in 1929 have various refrains: "way hay", "high ho" and even "hay way". So all of them are correct

But not one of these ancient mariners sings "err-lye": to a man they all sing "err-lee in the morning". Many of them had been at sea in the 1850s and some even in the 1840s, so presumably "err-lee" was the normal pronunciation in those days. Any ideas when and why it changed to "err-lye"?