Light House in Tamsui 1796

Located inside the MaZu Temple in Tamsui, on the left wall in the main hall, there is a stone tablet commemorating the building of Tamsui Overlook Light House:

Light house memorial tablet (1796)

The entire inscription is shown below. Not only the purpose of the project, it also recorded that all ships presently in port contributed one Spanish silver dollar each to the construction, and a fee of 40 cents would be collected from each entering ship to pay for light house upkeep. Notice at the end, the names of the donors all contain the character "觀":

望高樓碑誌 

仝立望高樓泉廈郊出海戶尾街董事 茲為設立守望以便利涉事 窃惟淡江港口係諸舡出入要津之所 其東北勢旁 有假港一處 每遇黑夜沙汕障蔽 莫辨真假 前經一二舡隻悞認假港 致遭不利 爰是邀同船戶相議 捐資建立望高樓一座 在假港水涯 付與
福佑宮住僧度西倩工守護 每夜明燈 照應諸船 由燈下南勢進港可保無虞 其建立費項 業經在港諸船允捐銀壹大元外 再到本港者 每次出銀四錢 以為守樓工資油火等費 願我同人 玉成其事 捐金不替 則眾生無迷津 而諸船皆利涉矣

嘉慶元年端月 日公立

黃從觀 歐居觀 林格觀 林騧觀 林疑觀 林詹觀 林鎮觀 紀意觀
王由觀 林禎觀 紀恭觀 朱相觀 黃經觀 高二觀 洪的觀 傅球觀
林景觀 洪德觀 陳評觀 紀暨觀 薛鎮觀 傅橙觀 周古觀 紀草觀 王仕觀

觀 was a salutation, equivalent to 官 (Master/Sir). For example, the first one on the list 黃從觀 was from 黃x從, x was removed to make room for 觀. In other instances, 觀 was simply added after the full name. This form of salutational address is no longer in use in the Chinese language, however.