I was aware of the fact that Titanic had at least as many boats as required by law back when I was a kid and saw "A Night To Remember" for the first time. I'd also heard the rumor about "Nearer My God To Thee" long ago.

I recently re-watched "Titanic" and it still holds up in well (and remains one of my all-time favorites). It is, after all, a work of fiction, and no doubt when he heard two different tellings of the same event Cameron would choose to take the more dramatic of the two, at least some of the time. he made up a lot of other stuff for the film as well.