Flow past a cylinder beneath a free surface gives rise to fundamental classes of nearwake structure that are distinctly different from the wake of a completely submerged cylinder. A central feature is the generation of a vorticity layer from the free surface due to: localized separation, in the form of small-scale breaking of a free-surface wave; or complete separation from the free surface. This vorticity layer appears adjacent to a layer from the surface of the cylinder, thereby forming a jet-like flow. It is shown that the instantaneous vorticity flux on either side of this jet is rapidly balanced immediately after the onset of separation from the free surface.