There was plenty of interest in Titanic before Cameron's movie came out, and even before the wreck was finally found. (IIRC, there were two high profile expeditions before Dr. Ballard that came up dry.) I don't think Titanic-mania ever really subsided since '97.

I thought for sure someone would make an Andrea Doria movie in it's wake though. There was a tv movie cranked out about Britannic though.

Interesting how the Hindenburg supposedly killed airship travel in the public's mind but Titanic didn't seem to put people off sea travel. Of course that newsreel footage was probably hard to avoid seeing back in the day.

HBO had a lavish semi-documentary style series back in the 80's about horrible historical disasters I likely would never have heard of otherwise. One was about a horrific fire on an ocean liner. The name of the ship escapes me.