The story
A contributor to a 1913 volume of the Mariner's Mirror nautical journal wrote the following of the term's etymology: :: "The variants of this queer, and to me unknown, terms are bulljowler, bulljowder, and bowjowler. :::: — 1913. "Words and Phrases: Bulljowler". The Mariner's Mirror v. III. p. 53.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.