The flow around a circular cylinder advancing beneath the free surface is numerically investigated using a VOF method. The simulations cover Froude numbers in the range of 0.2~0.6 and gap ratios (h/d) in the range of 0.1~2.0, where h is the distance from the free surface to a cylinder, and d is the diameter of a cylinder at Reynolds number 180. It is observed that the vortex suppression effect and surface deformation increase as the gap ratio decreases or the Froude number increases. The most important results of the present study are as follows. The proximity of the free surface causes an initial increase in the Strouhal number and drag coefficient, and the maximum Strouhal number and drag coefficient occur in the range of 0.5~0.7. However, this trend reverses as the gap ratio becomes small, and the lift coefficient increases downward as the gap ratio decreases.