The construction of the floating dock and then the graving dock allowed the port to establish itself as a centre of ship repair. The Union Steam Ship Company was established in Dunedin in 1875 and in the same year established a workshop at Port Chalmers to repair both its own and other companies’ ships. The company purchased the hulk of the barque ‘’Don Juan’’ in 1878 and moored it between the Bowen and George Street piers where it was used as a carpenters’ workshop and sailmakers loft. As demand for the workshop’s services increased in 1889 the company moved its workshops and sailmakers loft to an existing three-storey building before in 1897 the company constructed a new much bigger building on reclaimed land with further expansion in the following year. Up until 1920 Port Chalmers was the company’s main repair facility until in that year the company moved its headquarters to Wellington followed by the establishment of its main repair centre in that city. The facilities at Port Chalmers declined in importance until they finally closed in 1975.