The answer is no. Cannal pilots are necessary for any ship to transit the cannal & there are sundry inspections performed before entering. The primary is a safety inspection to ensure the ship will not breakdown in a channel, catch fire, or suffer a power or steering loss and wreck a cannal lock.

From various US Army orders and policy statements of 1941 its clear that sabatoge of this sort was at the top of the list of concerns. Japanese flagged or crewed ships were throughly inspected, as were any ships that appeared suspicious. Ships owned by German affliated companys but flagged under South American nations were on the watch list as well.