Vertenten lived and worked on the south coast of Dutch New Guinea from 1910 to 1925 among the Marind-anim, a Papuan people in the wider area of Merauke, and can be described as an authority on knowledge about them.

When the Marinds were risking extinction due to the spread of an imported venereal disease combined with their particular sexual practices, Vertenten repeatedly alerted the Dutch government in Merauke, and eventually got to speak to the governor-general in Batavia.

[2] Vertenten worked from 1910 to 1925 on the south coast of Dutch New Guinea among the Marind-anim, a Papuan people living in the area of Maurake,[3] who at the time were notorious for their headhunting and peculiar sexually oriented rituals.

His best known work is Fifteen Years with the Headhunters of Dutch South New Guinea (Vijftien jaar bij de koppensnellers van Nederlandsch Zuid-Nieuw-Guinea).

After his death, a large part of his oeuvre, as well as a meticulously maintained archive, were preserved in the mission house in Borgerhout, where Vertenten's career had started.