The Swiss Family Robinson (German: Der Schweizerische Robinson) is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia, goes off course and is shipwrecked in the East Indies. The crew of the ship is lost, but the family and a number of domestic animals survive. They make their way to shore where they build a settlement, undergoing a number of adventures before they are rescued; some of them refuse rescue and remain on the island. The book is the most successful of a large number of "castaway novels" that were written in response to the success of Robinson Crusoe. It has gone through a large number of versions and adaptations.