[3] Martin taught for a while, then joined the shipping firm Soames Brothers, trading to India and Australia, eventually becoming mate of the Dartmouth.
[4] In 1867, after six or seven years at sea he quit the ship in Sydney, and joined the gold rush to Gympie, Queensland, followed by Kilkaven and Rockhampton.
[9] Seeing a value in supplementing an academic education with technical training, he set up a carpentry and wood turning shop and a small printing press for the instruction of his pupils.
He was somewhat ahead of his time, however (this was before the School of Mines), and met with opposition from both the trades unions and Minister of Education, later Judge, John Hannah Gordon, and was forced to close them.
He moved out of the Education Department house and purchased one more suited to his large family, on Military Road, Semaphore.
He was then able to assist two of his sons, who were in business on St. Vincent Street, Port Adelaide, as Harold Martin & Co., electricians and motor mechanics.
His "pride and joy" was the sailer Miranda, built for him in 1890 by John Fraser (c. 1866–1896), of Birkenhead,[10] and the boys could always tell on Monday morning how well the racing went.