Dracula Chapter 7 Summary

Newspaper Article, August 8

The chapter opens with a newspaper article that Mina has pasted in her journal about the great storm of August 8.
The newspaper describes the storm very vividly—the tone doesn't sound much like a modern newspaper.
As the storm was getting really rough, lots of townspeople gathered on the hill above town to watch the strange ship that was coming into town.
Everyone commented on how strangely it was being steered.
The storm was getting pretty ridiculous.
Everyone was afraid the ship would be sunk on rocks or would crash into the pier as it came into the harbor.
When it got close, the people watching realized why it was being steered so haphazardly: The pilot was dead. He was just tied to the helm and kind of flopped back and forth with every wave.
Miraculously, though, the ship made it safely to the beach.
As it hit the shore, a big dog leaped out and disappeared.

Mina learns that the strange ship is from Varna (a town on the Black Sea) and that its cargo was just a bunch of wooden boxes filled with dirt.
No one ever found the strange dog that jumped out of the ship, although a lot of people looked for it.
Mina gets permission from the Board of Trade inspector to copy down the log of the captain of the ship (translated from the Russian by a local clerk).
The chapter continues with Mina's copy of the captain's log.

The voyage starts out fine—they take on their cargo and leave as usual. The crew seems nervous about something, though.
On July 16, one of the crew goes missing.
On July 17, another member of the crew tells the captain that he saw a strange man on the ship.
The captain thinks it is just superstition, but he has the ship searched anyway.
On July 24, another man disappears.
There is a big storm, and then another man disappears.
At least they're getting close to England.
On August 3, even the first mate starts acting weird—he claims to have seen something that he just calls "It" and swears he'll find it and kill it.
The captain assumes the first mate has gone crazy.
The first mate comes back out on deck and throws himself overboard.
The captain finally believes that something is wrong... and he figures out what it is.
He doesn't want to throw himself overboard, since he's the captain. So he ties himself to the helm with a rosary between his hands to keep "It" away.
And so his log entries ended.

Mina says that the captain was going to be given a hero's burial in Whitby because he stayed at his post until death.
Mina plans on watching the funeral procession.

Lucy is sleepwalking again—she got up twice during the night to get dressed, and so Mina kept having to get up and put Lucy back to bed again.

The old man who had befriended Mina and Lucy is found dead at their favorite seat up on the hill above the town: His neck was broken.
That was the day of the funeral procession for the ship's captain, which Lucy and Mina went to watch.

READ THE BOOK: Chapter 7