The repairing of ships was an important accessory industry that worked hand in hand with the Wears shipbuilding. The skills available on Wearside allowed the yards to repair ships that was normally considered to be a specialist job. Laings had always done a considerable amount of repair work and at one time ran two drydocks. One was the Cornhill Dock on the North side of the river opposite Deptford and Deptford Dock which was within the shipyard. The Cornhill Dock was given up many years before the war and during the war the Deptford Dock was filled in to make way for a new fitting out quay.

Then we have Austins who repaired ships for as long as they had been building them. Before 1869 they repaired ships on a slipway which in that year was taken up  and sold for re-erection at Helsingfors. In its place a new drydock was constructed in 1870 which could take ships up to 300 feet in length.

Look just below Wearmouth Bridge and you can see whats left of the pontoon dock which was opened in 1903. It had a lifting capacity of 3,000 tons. This was where most colliers would have, at some point in there lives been lifted on the pontoon for examination or repair.
John Crown and Sons had a big reputation for repairs as well as building smaller craft. For generations their Strand Slipway was used for reparing vessels. They were the first to undertake the replacement of ships parts more commonly known as  " ship surgery " . During World War 1  Crowns took the Wreathier in hand after she had been mined, and fitted to her a complete fore end.
Joseph L. Thompson and Sons were not ony shipbuilders but expert ship repairers. The Manor Quay works and fitting out quay , not far from the North Sands shipyard helped in the repair and reconditioning of hundreds of vessels. One of their most notable achievements was the reconstruction of the Silverpine and Silverlarch in 1935.
The largest firm of ship repairers was Greenwells at the South Dock.