Quote:
Originally Posted by lehcyfer
In Jacobus past stories (the part "The Winans Cigar Ships in Europe" you can read:
And only the Winans ships had the true cigar shape with both conical ends...
The Alligator was built around the time of the proposal I've built here - it looks very interesting - maybe I'll do it someday 
@rmks2000: I've made a special instrument - a stick with duct tape rolled around to the exact inside diameter of the smokestack - it helped immesurably to achieve the uniformity you comment.
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Not to belabor the point, but I think there's room for doubt.
That's a nice quote, but there are many others attributing the inspiration to other ships (all submarines, as far as I know). Seems like everyone has a different guess.
Visually, the usual suspects are the French submarine "Le Plongeur", a widely publicized design of the day. It had the two raised "wheelhouses" that are a trademark of Verne's Nautilus as well as the prominent ram;
BRStateMuseumJuly08SubPioneerModel.jpg
The other contender is the Confederate Pioneer. While not highly publicized, information was available in journals of the day. It has the double conical "spindle" shape of the Nautilus as well as a wheelhouse that is not far off the Verne version.
PioneerRender01.jpg
I doubt that there's any conclusive proof as to a single source of inspiration for the Nautilus. But Verne was pretty thorough in his research, at least as much as possible at the time, and while there is certainly the spindle shape of the Nautilus in the Winans ships, I would be surprised if Verne took inspiration for the Nautilus submarine from a surface vessel.
The Alligator, and its DeVilleroi predecessors, had the diver lock out that also played in the Nautilus.
Chris
PS. I really like your idea for the taped stick!