Kermit are you going to explain the meaning behind the innocent looking palm and cresent?
This question was asked by someone who obviously knows the answer and is hoping to catch poor little Kermit off-guard. Not to worry! I know almost as much about the crescent as anyone else who "knows-for-damn-sure" what it is. Sit down, dear readers, and I'll give you the history as I understand it. (And just so you'll know, I can't find an absolute answer anywhere as to the definitive final answer on the crescent. Apparently there is no absolute right answer.)
The SC flag originally had a blue background with 3 crescents. William Moultrie redesigned the flag, removing 2 of the crescents leaving only 1. The crescent is supposedly a gorget. (I'll let y'all look up gorget and make up your own minds as to what it was actually used for.) The gorget was used on military uniforms and turned with the pointers up. Not to the side like is shown currently on our flag. The palmetto tree was added to honor the logs used to build Ft. Moultrie which was named for William Moultrie.
Apparently, the flag used until the early-ish 1900s had the tree and crescent with the pointers turned up. I can't find an image that shows that particular flag anywhere on the internet. But it must have been that way because there are articles that state that the crescent was to symbolize the gorget. Then Alexander Samuel Salley Jr., secretary of the state's Historical Commission turned the crescent on its side. So it now looks like a moon. Which is the way just about all South Carolinians think of the crescent. Thus the name of our boat, "Palmetto Moon." And thus the design of our spinnaker.
Now back to my statement that I know just about as much as anyone who "knows-for-damn-sure" what it is. I can't find a definitive history anywhere that clears up the absolute "By-God-this-is-the-way-it-happened" history of the South Carolina flag. But it is what it is today and I'm dang proud of it. And it's pretty, too.