Wave disturbances caused by the uniform translatory motion of a submerged body on or beneath the free surface of a viscous fluid are investigated analytically. The submerged body is idealized as an Oseenlet or an Oseen doublet, and exact solutions in closed integral forms are obtained. Based on these exact solutions, asymptotic representations of the wave amplitude for large Reynolds numbers based on the deep‐water wavelength at large distances downstream of the body are derived. The results obtained show explicitly the effect of the laminar wake on the amplitude and the phase of the surface waves thus created. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.