The name of the ship was almost certainly the SS John Lykes, not USS John Lykes. "USS" means United States Ship and refers to commissioned warships of the U.S. Navy. "SS" means steamship, which the SS John Lykes was. A Google search turns up quite a few hits for SS John Lykes, although no online photographs.

Please see this page from the excellent website, American Merchant Marine at War, for sources of photographs of World War II-era U.S. merchant ships: http://usmm.org/photosource.html.

Good luck.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard website www.armed-guard.com