Few sources on the Frisian Admiralty survived. The entire archive on the Admiralty was destroyed in the large fire of 12 and 13 February 1771 in Harlingen, and many maps and documents relating to the history of Friesland were also lost. What little archive material remained was held in the Department of Navy at The Hague, until that too was destroyed by fire on 8 January 1844. Little is known on the great men of the Admiralty, due to a lack of surviving archival material. One example of such loss is described by historian Beucker Andreae, who studied the life of Admiral Auke Stellingwerf. About his search on the latter's baptismal records in what might have been the man's birthplace, Workum, he wrote: