"Specie" is an old banking term denoting money in the form of coins or bullion rather than notes. On a ship, the Specie Room is a strong room specifically for storage of this. Usually found at the bottom of the vessel, it is then surrounded by cargo, making it inaccessible during the voyage until the cargo is unloaded on arrival.
The year is 1910 and the shipping line owner says the plan is to break the record of crossing the Atlantic by crossing in 8 days. The Mauretania's records for an Atlantic crossing was set In June 1909. It made the crossing in four days, 17 hours, and 21 minutes.
After returning to the ship from his fact-gathering trip ashore, Horrocks is seen to be drinking Scotch whisky from a bottle of Cutty Sark. The story takes place in 1910, and yet the Cutty Sark brand was not launched until 1923.
The story is said in the front credits to be by C J Catliffe Hyne.