prose Homer of the great ocean". Campaigner Woods writes that Russell's sea novels "stimulated public interest in the conditions under which sailors lived, and thereby paved the way for the reform of many abuses." The year after Russell's death, Woods wrote: Later, Russell turned his attention to the deplorable provisions that unscrupulous ship-owners provided for merchant seamen on their vessels: "Nothing more atrociously nasty could be found amongst the neglected putrid sweepings of a butcher's back premises". But, his efforts did not stop there. Russell extended his sympathy even to the captive natives of the time of British colonization of Tasmania. He described in great detail the merciless treatment the British forces used against native captives. One such description so horrifically described was the story of Lalla Rookh of Tasmania, a Tasmanian girl who had watched her mother get butchered by the British settlers, her sisters raped and captured, and the men of her family shot dead in front of her. The horrors for Lalla only continued as she was taken on a convict ship sailing to Australia, all of which Russell was a witness. The Owl, a Birmingham newspaper, wrote the following:The poor wretches were treated like beasts and flogged unmercifully, and their fearful experiences on an outward bound convict ship, so vividly painted by William Clark Russell, were but foretastes of the horrors awaiting them in the penal colonies of Australia.Though this did little to halt the brutish treatment by the British colonizers, Russell's empathy towards those captive people helped to record and reveal the atrocity committed by the British people. Later years During his last two decades Russell became progressively more disabled by arthritis, generally regarded as a legacy of his years at sea as a youth – "the sailor's enemy", as The Manchester Guardian stated. He did not allow this to stop him writing; The Times commented, "He worked harder than many haler men." He went to health resorts including Bath, Droitwich and Madeira, and after living in Ramsgate and Deal on the south coast of England, he settled in Bath. He was bed-ridden for the last six months of his life. Russell died at his home in Bath at the age of 67, and his remains are buried in Smallcombe Cemetery in Bath. Works Fra Angelo – A tragedy in five acts (1865) The Hunchback's Charge (1867) The Book of Authors – A Collection of