The free surface influenced the wake behind a rotating propeller and its effects were investigated experimentally in a circulating water channel with the variation of water depth. Instantaneous velocity fields were measured using two-frame PIV technique and ensemble-averaged to study the phase-averaged flow structure in the wake region. For an isolated propeller, the flow behind the propeller is affected only by the propeller rotation speed, the leading on the blades and the proximity of the propeller to the free surface. The phase-averaged mean velocity fields show that the potential wake and the viscous wake developed on the blade surfaces. The interaction between the tip vortices and the slipstream causes the oscillating trajectory of tip vortices. The presence of the free surface greatly affected the wake structure, especially for propeller immersion depth of 0.6D. At small immersion depths, the free surface modified the tip and trailing vortices and the slipstream flow structure downstream of X/D = 0.3 in the propeller wake.