Martensen splines M f of degree n interpolate f and its derivatives up to the order n − 1 at a subset of the knots of the spline space, have local support and exactly reproduce both polynomials and splines of degree ≤ n. An approximation error estimate has been provided for f ∈ C n+1 . This paper aims to clarify how well the Martensen splines M f approximate smooth functions on compact intervals. Assuming that f ∈ C n−1 , approximation error estimates are provided for D j f, j = 0, 1, . . . , n − 1, where D j is the jth derivative operator. Moreover, a set of sufficient conditions on the sequence of meshes are derived for the uniform convergence of D j M f to D j f , for j = 0, 1, . . . , n − 1.