as the twelve-year old popeye set off on his first voyage, he would end up losing the vision of his right eye in "the mos' arful battle" of his life. one fateful night, popeye had just finished shooting craps with his five mates, who laid beaten on the deck of the "josie lee" with all their money on popeye's side. it was then that the monstrous and bloodthirsty cook of the ship, an evil, beast-like man simply known as "the ape," stepped forth, having had enough of popeye's winning streak. popeye knew a fight was inevitable and shouted out a "blow me down!" before promising to lay the monster man "among the swee'peas" (the sweet pea flowerbed) as his resting place. however, the naive young boy (who always kept his promises no matter what) realized that there was not a single flowerbed of "swee'peas" in sight, with the exception of a bed of sunflowers on the ship. the flustered popeye kept looking around the boat with his good peepers for any sign of a flowerbed to keep his word on, but before he knew it, "the ape" pounced on the unsuspecting rookie sailor and a fierce onslaught ensued with the ape showing no mercy and laying down a gruesome punishment on the sailor, with popeye never being able to see another flowerbed with that one peeper of his again. from then on, those at sea would refer to popeye as "pop-eye", after his popped eye.