The average wave drag in unsteady motion is studied experimentally with force measurements. Towing hulls of size $L$ at sinusoidal speed, the mean drag is measured for different amplitudes and frequencies of the fluctuating velocity, as well as different Froude numbers $\mathcal {F}_0$ associated with the mean velocity $V_0$ ( $\mathcal {F}_0 = V_0/\sqrt {gL}$ ). The wave drag is reported to be either increased or decreased by velocity fluctuations depending on $\mathcal {F}_0$ . For small fluctuation amplitudes, this drag change is proportional to the square of the amplitude. The effect is maximized for a resonance frequency identified as the Wehausen frequency, which scales as $\sqrt {g/L}$ times the inverse of the Froude number. All these results are rationalized by developing an extension to Havelock's theory.