Hindsight is 20/20, but maybe in retrospect, some of the money and space taken up by luxury amenities aboard the Titanic should have been reserved for lifeboats. Yet, amenities sell more passages than do life rafts, especially when the threat of disaster was the furthest thing from the minds of those lucky 2,000-plus first passengers to board the special luxury liner. After all, the White Star Line promoted the Titanic as an "unsinkable" ship, and with its massive sixe and opulent décor, passengers surely looked forward to crossing the Atlantic in luxury and comfort.

The White Star Line could boast a number of passenger amenities aboard the giant ship that we may take for granted on cruise ships today. But when the Titanic sank in 1912, among the things that were lost at sea were an onboard Turkish bath, libraries, a café, a squash court and a swimming pool -- the first heated one to be installed on a ship. The liner had new ornate carpet and furniture in the passenger rooms was made of teak. For the sending and receiving of telegrams, the Titanic also included a wireless radio station. The luxury liner even had an infirmary that included an operating room.

The Titanic actually was not the first big luxury liner launched by White Star. In 1910, the company launched the RMS Olympic and she became the heaviest ship ever to float -- for a short time, of course. After the sinking of her sister ship, the Olympic was returned to harbor and modified for safety; this included adding lifeboats. The Olympic also was a luxury liner, but when World War I hit, intercontinental travel declined and on her return voyage to Belfast, the ship came to the rescue of a British battleship that had been damaged by a mine. The liner also aided the war effort as a troop transport -- the ship could carry up to 7,000 soldiers at a time. Doing so meant stripping the ship of its luxurious trappings, however [source: Titanic.com].