EVERETT, Wash. (AP) - Four 80-year-old ferries in Washington have never met certain Coast Guard safety standards that have been in place since the 1950s.

Leaks have forced the Steel Electrics-class vessels to be sidelined for maintenance several times in recent years, but the U.S. Coast Guard insists they have passed inspection and remain fit for duty.

"When we post that certificate of inspection on it, that's us saying they're safe," Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Josh Reynolds told The Herald of Everett. "I firmly believe in our inspection program."

Despite such assurances, State Auditor Brian Sonntag sought to conduct an independent inspection after receiving a whistle-blower complaint about ferry safety in 2004. But state attorneys told him the ferry system had the power to deny his office access to the vessel in question.

Sonntag considered writing a report criticizing the ferry system for operating vessels that don't meet current safety standards, but said he backed off when ferry officials produced Coast Guard waivers and assurances.

"You feel safe until all of a sudden you're not," Sonntag told The Herald. "People felt safe on the Titanic."

In late June, the Coast Guard ordered Washington State Ferries to take immediate steps to fix the problems causing frequent leaks on its Steel Electrics.

The Coast Guard said the problems were "serious in nature" and that they reflected insufficient maintenance for such old vessels.

Mike Anderson, executive director of the state ferry system, characterized the leaks as "small incidents," while acknowledging that the problems are serious enough to warrant $2 million in fixes to meet the Coast Guard's demands.

The ferries launched in 1927, with steel engines driving electric propulsion systems, giving them the name Steel Electrics.

They first plied the waters around San Francisco, carrying passengers, Model-Ts and horse-drawn carriages. They became surplus in the 1930s after the Golden Gate Bridge and other spans across the San Francisco Bay opened.

A private ferry company running ferries across Puget Sound bought six of San Francisco Steel Electrics for $300,000 in 1940. Washington State Ferries inherited them when it took over the ferries in 1951, retiring two of them 40 years ago.

Today the state's four Steel Electrics - the Klickitat, Quinault, Illahee and Nisqually - are used in the San Juan Islands and on the Keystone-Port Townsend run.

None of them meets federal safety standards that require ferry hulls to be divided into multiple, water-tight and to be able to remain afloat even if more than one of those compartments fills with water, The Herald reported.

Vessels that don't meet that standard are at greater risk of sinking or capsizing.

A Coast Guard inspector told the state to retrofit the Klickitat 26 years ago to meet the higher standards. But ferry officials complained the work would be prohibitively expensive, and the Coast Guard instead ordered that the vessel undergo stepped-up hull inspections.

Today, when problems are discovered on the aging Steel Electrics, the state replaces steel hull plates. That's created "a bit of a patchwork quilt" out of their hulls," Anderson said.

More than a third of Washington's 28 ferries are at least 52 years old. The average age of the 36 vessels in British Columbia's ferry system, by comparison, is 25.

Six years ago, Washington lawmakers voted to build four new ferries, an idea that was pitched as a chance to retire the Steel Electrics.

But now, ferry officials say they plan to build four new 144-car ferries - more than twice the size of the old ones - and that they may be able to retire two of the Steel Electrics sometime after 2009, while continuing to use the other two indefinitely.

The state's handling of the $348 million ferry construction contract prompted J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Corp. of Tacoma to file a federal lawsuit accusing state officials of illegally eliminating Martinac from the bidding.

The lawsuit is pending, and state officials have been negotiating with Martinac to find a role for it to play in building the new ferries. The plan now calls for Todd Pacific Shipyards Corp. of Seattle to head up construction, with Martinac and Whidbey Island's Nichols Brothers Boat Builders Inc. serving as the primary subcontractors.

Martinac attorney Jed Powell questions the Coast Guard's and state officials' insistence that the Steel Electrics are safe. In the company's lawsuit, he suggested that the state is keeping them running because the ferry system sold the depreciation value of the vessels to investors in the 1980s.

That agreement, which brought in an immediate $8.2 million for the ferry system, requires the state to keep the ferries on the water until 2014, Powell said.

State officials deny the lawsuit's assertions, saying the depreciation deal was done long before the system's current problems and was part of a federally approved program, The Herald reported.

Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald and other state officials said they're ready to defend themselves in court, but remain hopeful the lawsuit will get resolved as Martinac negotiates for ferry work.