SendMessageUpwards not working, I dont know why...

I have been following a game tutorial, I have a more PHP with a little C# background and the tutorial uses JS, so to try an learn a bit I have been following the tutorial, and then converting to C#.

I have had a few successes in this conversion, but the problem I am having is calling a script after a raycast hit.

The raycast is working, the debug log script shows that the FPS is within the stated distance, but when I call

 hit.collider.SendMessageUpwards ("ApplyDamage", theDamage, SendMessageOptions.DontRequireReceiver);

The method inside an external script 'enemyLogic' is not being called. The script is attached to the 'enemy Object' and in game mode, I can see the health value, I am really stuck here as I have tried as much as I can.

I am still learning Unity, so please be gentle is it is an obvious mistake!

Here are the simple scripts I have so far, meleeAction is attached to the FPS player object, and enemyLogic is a component of 'the enemy' currently a simple cube. meleeScript.cs :

public class meleeScript : MonoBehaviour { // Declare attributes

 public int theDamage = 10;
 public float maxDistance = 5;
 // Use this for initialization
 void Start()
 {
    
 }

 // Update is called once per frame
 void Update() 
 {
     RaycastHit hit = new RaycastHit();
     if (Physics.Raycast(transform.position, transform.TransformDirection(Vector3.forward), out hit, maxDistance)) {
         //if (the raycast distance & position) , ofthedirectionofthenearByObject (is in front of them), (return data to the object hit), and it is less than n 'units' away))
         if (Input.GetButtonDown ("Fire1")) {
             Debug.Log ("within distance");
                 hit.collider.SendMessageUpwards ("ApplyDamage", theDamage, SendMessageOptions.DontRequireReceiver);
         }
     }
 }

   

}

enemyLogic.cs:

public class enemyLogic : MonoBehaviour {

 public int health = 100;

 // Use this for initialization
 void Start () {
     
 }
 // Update is called once per frame
 void Update () {
     
 }
 //damage application function (does not seem to call)
 void ApplyDamage(int theDamage) {
     Debug.Log ("current Health = " + health);
     health -= theDamage;
     Debug.Log ("New Health = " + health);
 }

}

All help and pointers are greatly appreciated