Birely, Hillman & Streaker

The company built both oceangoing ships for coastal trade as well as riverboats and ferries for inland transport.

In lean times, the company would also occasionally take on military contracts, such as when it built the Haitian gunboats St. Michel and 1804 in 1875.

After 1871, Birely, Hillman & Streaker was the only Philadelphia shipbuilder to continue outsourcing its ship engines.

The Hillmans had recognized the need for the firm to make the move to iron shipbuilding, and they quickly set up a plant for the manufacture of tugboat engines, which commenced production in 1889.

Hillman & Sons was an example of the "naval contract syndrome" that drove a number of well established U.S. shipyards to closure in this era.