Hey Tarn,
"Louis Bodine is actually Lewis Abernathy, James Cameron's best friend. Lewis, as a joke, wrote a screenplay about Titanic for James for his birthday. Lewis, whom is a known "rivet-counter" and at one time was the youngest member of the Titanic Historical Society, thought that a "good" movie needed to be made of Titanic. He never believed that James would take to the idea though. James then wrote the screenplay for Titanic, and wrote in Bodine to represent Abernathy. After numerous screenings, James discovered that Abernathy was the only man who could play the part. Abernathy also helped James recreate the Titanic accurately as possible."
That is a quote from this site--http://www.back-to-titanic.com/film/bts/facts/distant.shtml -Back to The Titanic
I could not get the link to work, sorry!
Hope that helps a bit.
-Trent