Recollections of the famous blacksmith of Muhu

Andrus Müüripeal (1877-1945), a.k.a. Puka Andrus from Puka cottage in the village of Lepiku, was a famous blacksmith on Muhu before the war.

He worked on the construction of the battery in Võiküla along with other blacksmiths from the island. When the workers began mounting one of the guns, it became apparent that the screw thread of the mount had been machined so haphazardly that the nut designed to fasten the gun to the mount did not fit at all. The officers were deeply troubled by this, as this would have required them to break the concrete casing to get the mount back out and to send it back to St Petersburg, which would have far exceeded their deadline. Such delays led to severe punishments in wartime. They turned to Puka Andrus who, after seeing the problem for himself, said that if he were to be provided with assistants, then fixing it would be simple. The Russians were prepared to place the entire company of soldiers at his disposal, but Andrus needed just four men for the machining and was finished in half a day. He was offered anything he asked for as payment, and Andrus supposedly requested that he be taken home by plane. Since no one was aware of any such flight, however, the request is unlikely to have been fulfilled. Andrus was also promised a state decoration, but he did not receive this either. Instead, he was mobilised and sent to the war front.